Vatican City, 23 April, 2020 / 2:45 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis marked the feast of his namesake on Thursday with a gift of ventilators and other medical equipment to countries with medical systems overwhelmed by the coronavirus outbreak.
Ventilators were delivered to hospitals in Romania, Spain, and Italy on April 23, the feast of St. George, the patron saint of Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
Because coronavirus is a respiratory illness, ventilators have become one of the highest priorities in hospitals around the world, including in Italy’s overwhelmed hospital system.
Five ventilators were sent to a hospital in Suceava, Romania, a town that has reported 25% of the 10,096 cases of COVID-19 in Romania, according to Vatican News.
Two more ventilators are being delivered to a hospital in the southern Italian town of Lecce, and three others have been given to Madrid, Spain.