Defence ministers from NATO nations agreed today to stockpile medical equipment — and to ask member nations to contribute to an emergency fund to buy even more supplies — as the alliance braces for a second wave of the pandemic.
Defence ministers from NATO nations agreed today to stockpile medical equipment — and to ask member nations to contribute to an emergency fund to buy even more supplies — as the alliance braces for a second wave of the pandemic.
Preparations to respond to future pandemic waves preoccupied the ministers during their two-day teleconference meeting, hosted by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels. The COVID-19 crisis even overshadowed what, in normal times, would have been headline-grabbing disagreements among the allies.
At the conclusion of the meeting today, Stoltenberg said NATO has taken every step it can to ensure that the global health crisis does not become a security crisis by supporting the civilian response to COVID-19.
In Canada, that support has manifested itself largely through the deployment of troops into long-term care homes in Ontario and Quebec to backstop overwhelmed care workers.
‘We stand ready’ — Stoltenberg
The defence ministers also agreed today to an updated pandemic operational plan which would build on some actions the alliance has taken during the first wave of the pandemic — such as ferrying medical supplies to hard-hit countries and building field hospitals.
“We stand ready to support each other should a second wave of the pandemic strike,” Stoltenberg told reporters.
Canada and other nations struggled to obtain basic items of pandemic equipment, such as protective masks and ventilators, when COVID-19 first swept around the glob