TIRANA: Albania, one of the poorest countries in Europe,
flew a team of doctors and nurses to neighboring Italy on Saturday to help it
deal with the coronavirus pandemic as its own cases have yet to strain the
health sector. Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government assigned 11 million leke
($95,000) to pay the team of 30 medical staff, who volunteered, to work for a
month in the area of Bergamo, the official gazette said.

The Italian Embassy in Tirana confirmed the plane had left
in mid-afternoon carrying the medical team, adding in a Twitter message; “Thanks
to the Albanian government for this act of solidarity and affection!  #forever united”. Albania has 197 cases of
the illness, with 10 deaths. Italy has more than 86,000 cases, and its death
toll of more than 9,000 is the highest in the world. Bergamo is the worst hit
area.  Italy has helped Albania since it
faced a number of crisis after toppling communism in the late 1980s, including
risk of famine in the early 1990s and anarchy in 1997. Tirana sees the medical
aid as a chance to repay the favors, however small its contribution.

Some 400,000 Albanians live and work in Italy, sending money
home to their families as well as investing savings and expertise gained there
to build businesses back home. Albania has seen the strain on Italy’s more
advanced health system as a stark warning and has imposed increasingly strict
restrictions on social contact on its citizens. — Reuters