The U.S. Embassy in Ecuador delivered eight ventilators, valued at $135,200, to the Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health on April 29, 2021.
The Hamilton-T1 Gray equipment will support the medical care given to COVID-19 patients at the Enrique Garcés, Eugenio Espejo, and Pablo Arturo Suárez hospitals, all located in Quito, one of the Ecuadorian cities that has had a sustained increase in COVID-19 positive cases.
Minister Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Quito Debra Hevia handed over the donation to Dr. Salomón Proaño, vice minister of Comprehensive Health Care at the Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health.
“Thanks to all the personnel at the Ministry of Health who work tirelessly to protect the health of citizens. We are very excited to know that this donation will support medical personnel and Ecuadorians,” Hevia said.
The handover, carried out by the Office of Security Cooperation of the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador, through the Humanitarian Assistance Program (HAP) of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), will help provide patients with optimal ventilation support during their transfer to and from hospitals and during their hospital stay.
This donation complements the one HAP made in December 2020, when it handed over a mobile field hospital to the Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health, and another to the National Risk Management Service, in addition to 250 ventilators that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) donated to the Ministry of Public Health in the summer of 2020. SOUTHCOM’s HAP has delivered nearly $1.3 million in donations to Ecuador during the pandemic.