LISBON – A German army medical team flew into Lisbon on Wednesday to help Portugal cope with a pandemic surge that has made it the world’s worst-hit country by size of population.
The eight doctors and 18 nurses arrived at the Figo Maduro military airport in the Portuguese capital aboard a Luftwaffe transport plane.
Portuguese Health Minister Marta Temido said they would be deployed at an intensive care unit at Lisbon’s Hospital da Luz with eight beds.
The unit had not been used so far because of a lack of medical staff. Temido said the deployment addresses an acute problem in Portugal: a shortage of human resources in the public health system, which has been stretched to the limit after a January spike fueled by a fast-spreading COVID-19