Italian Foreign Minister, Luigi Maio, on Friday thanked China for sending medical aid and experts to help Italy combat the worst European outbreak of the new coronavirus.
“There are the first 40 ventilators, there are the masks, that are what we call solidarity,” he said. Italy’s health system is straining under the outbreak, with a total of 12,839 infections diagnosed and 1,016 deaths as of Thursday evening.
The country is under near lockdown, with people banned from leaving their houses without good reason and all shops except food stores, pharmacies, newspaper stands and tobacconists closed.
READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Italy Extends Emergency Measures Nationwide
Maio suggested that Europe was not being as helpful, after Germany and France notified the European Commission that they did not want to export safety equipment such as masks.
Maio, however, particularly criticised the European Central Bank (ECB), whose announcements on Thursday failed to stem stock market crashes and were also criticised by French President Emmanuel Macron.
“It should have announced it was helping us.
“It spoke and not only did it not help us, it provoked one of the most violent crashes on the stock market in the history of our republic,” he said.
(dpa/NAN)
