The Diplomat
Spain’s Ambassador to Honduras, Guillermo Kirkpatrick, has handed over 24,000 rapid tests for the diagnosis of COVID-19 donated by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) to the Central American country’s Ministry of Health.
Kirkpatrick handed over to the Deputy Minister of the Health Secretariat, Roberto Cosenza, in the presence of the Commissioner of the Permanent Contingency Commission of Honduras (COPECO), Max González. During the ceremony, which took place on Monday in San Pedro Sula (the country’s economic capital), the ambassador insisted on the need not to lower the guard against COVID-19 and expressed Spain’s willingness to continue supporting Honduras in confronting the effects of the pandemic.
The tests, valued at 150,000 euros (4.5 million lempiras), will be distributed in the health regions of Santa Bárbara, Yoro, and Cortés, as well as in the hospitals of Tela, Copán, Progreso, Puerto Cortés, Hospital Mario Catarino Rivas and Hospital Leonardo Martínez, the latter in San Pedro Sula, according to the AECID Technical Cooperation Office in Honduras.
This donation is part of the 120 tons of humanitarian aid mobilized by Spain on the occasion of Queen Letizia’s visit to Honduras last December. The total value of the humanitarian aid delivered to Honduras to alleviate the effects of hurricanes Eta and Iota is currently EUR 3.2 million (96.3 million lempiras), part of which was transferred with the support of the European Union’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO).
Spain is working in the framework of the Team Europe initiative, which articulates the efforts of the European Union and its Member States to provide a harmonised and effective response to the consequences of the pandemic. Within this initiative, Spanish Cooperation carries out actions in areas such as food and nutritional security, access to water and sanitation, early recovery in economic measures, employment and humanitarian aid.
Last November, Spain and Honduras held the 8th Meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee which approved the Country Partnership Framework for the years 2020-2023, “a planning instrument which defines the lines of work of Spanish Cooperation in Honduras and which reaffirms Spain’s commitment to Honduras”, according to the AECID.
