Assistance to Kosovo Institutions to Fight COVID-19

Ministry of Health, German Embassy, UN Development Coordination Office, WHO/ Joint Robert Koch Institute/EMT/GOARN mission to Kosovo:

RKI/EMT/WHO-GOARN Mission to Kosovo (21 September – 03 October 2020)

PRISTINA (22 SEPTEMBER 2020) – In order to strengthen the Kosovo’s capacities in the fight against COVID-19, the Centre for International Health Protection (ZIG) at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is deploying a delegation on a joint RKI/EMT/WHO-GOARN mission to Kosovo. The 2-week mission, which has been initiated and organized by the RKI in close co-operation with WHO and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), arrived from Berlin on 21 September 2020.

RKI experts including specialists from the department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, the ZIG Information Centre for International Health Protection (INIG), ZIG’s Evidence-based Public Health Unit and the ZIG Public Health Laboratory Support form part of the RKI delegation to advise in the fields of surveillance, epidemiology, risk communication and laboratory diagnostics. A scoping mission for the possible deployment of a mobile laboratory is integrated in the mission. In collaboration with a WHO consultant, RKI staff will perform the assessment, implementation and monitoring of the Go.Data field data collection platform, a WHO GOARN project, in the country. Further assessments of Go.Data in the scope of RKI’s running Global Health Protection Programme (GHPP) project with Kosovo are planned.

In terms of clinical management, the mission’s objective is to provide support and advice to the Ministry of Health of Kosovo and local health care workers with the clinical management of COVID19 patients, as well as to implement infection prevention and control (IPC) measures. To achieve this, the medical experts will provide shadowing support of clinical personnel and on-the-job COVID-19 training.

In addition to coordination experts from the EMT National Focal Point Team at ZIG, this joint mission comprises of medical specialists from the German Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) Humedica, Johanniter Unfallhilfe and I.S.A.R. Germany, complemented by experts from the Universitätsmedizin der Charité, the Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf and the Bundeswehr Medical Service Command.

During the Ceremony Mr. Armend Zemaj the Kosovo Minister of Health thanked the German Government, the Embassy, WHO and all UN Kosovo team for support to Kosovo. Followed by H.E. Mr. Jörn Rohde the Ambassador of Germany to Pristina, who stated that Kosovo is not alone in fight against Covid-19. Ms. Ulrika Richardson the UN Development Coordinator in Kosovo, reminded that, despite decreasing trend of new COVID-19 cases, which is a positive indicator, and all the help and assistance; we need to all be careful and continue with social preventive measures of keeping the distance, hand hygiene and wear a mask. Mr. Andreas Jansen, head of the Information Centre for International Health Protection, Head of mission, 22 members of team (Emergency Medical Team, Clinician experts and Robert Koch Institute from Germany)- stated that, he is counting on excellent cooperation with Kosovo colleagues for maximal impact of the assistance he and his team are providing.