Czech Republic to donate 100 million crowns of medical supplies to Ukraine

The Czech Health Ministry has offered to donate medical supplies totaling more than 108 million crowns to Ukraine, spokesman Ondřej Jakob told local media today. "The offer includes transfusion bags for drawing blood and medical equipment such as beds, needles, syringes, ventilators and monitors," Jakob said.

He added that the shipment of supplies for Ukraine will be coordinated by the Czech Fire Corps Directorate, which has been handling humanitarian aid for Ukraine sent by the Czech Republic over the past week.

In the meantime, Czech pharmaceutical companies are also prepared to donate medical supplies to Ukraine, Jakob said. These donations would be coordinated by the Czech Association of Pharmaceutical Companies.

Ukraine has not yet requested supplies of blood or plasma, but the Czech Republic is also prepared to accommodate these requests, according to Jitka Zinke, a spokesperson for Prague's Central Military Hospital.

"In case Ukraine requests a supply of blood and plasma, we have enough reserves at our disposal," Zinke told local media, adding that for the time being, there is no need to organize a blood drive for this purpose.

If the need arises, a call for a local blood drive would be made by the Czech Red Cross.

Czech Deputy Health Minister Jakub Dvořáček, who is in charge of coordinating the ministry's aid, said that Ukraine also requested oxygen tanks during a lower house meeting on Wednesday.

However, the Czech oxygen tanks are incompatible with Ukrainian equipment and therefore unsuitable to deliver to Ukraine. The Czech Republic purchased a large supply of these tanks to accommodate the expected numbers of patients hospitalized with Covid-19.

The Czech Association of Pharmaceutical Companies tweeted that local pharmaceutical companies, distributors, and pharmacies are prepared to donate hundreds of thousands of packages of medicine to Ukraine. The Health Ministry would arrange transport of the medicine to a central EU depository for medicine at the Polish-Ukrainian border.

Similarly, Czech arms producers have donated weapons to Ukraine through the Czech Defense Ministry.

On Wednesday, the Health Ministry advised citizens to not send their own medical supplies to Ukraine, specifically medicines with a prescription or requiring special handling during transport.

Health Minister Vlastimil Válek instead asked people to donate money so that the Ministry can purchase medicine to meet specific requests from Ukraine as needs arise.