El Salvador donated 10,000 injections of an analgesic to Costa Rica used in the treatment of patients admitted to intensive care rooms due to the Covid-19 pandemic, President Nayib Bukele reported on Wednesday.
“Our brothers in Costa Rica urgently requested a loan of 10,000 ampoules of Fentanyl, for patients who struggled between life and death in their ICUs. But the help is not a loan, it is given unconditionally,” Bukele said on Twitter.
The Fentanyl donation was delivered by the Salvadoran Minister of Health, Francisco Alabí, to the Costa Rican ambassador in San Salvador, Eugenia Ajoy Roja.
“The only way to get ahead in the face of this Covid-19 pandemic is by working as a team and working together,” said Alabí.
President Carlos Alvarado thanked the Salvadoran government for its donation via a message on social media.
“I thank the government and people of El Salvador for the solidarity shown,” he said. “This enhances the mutual cooperation mechanisms in the region. Together, as brothers, we will overcome the pandemic and development challenges.”
El Salvador, a small 20,742 km2 and with 6.6 million inhabitants, has accumulated 68,007 positive cases of coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, with 2,086 deaths. It has averaged 50,000 daily vaccine doses in the last week.
Costa Rica, for its part, has seen coronavirus cases and hospitalizations spike since mid-March:
