Since its emergence in late 2019, the coronavirus has turned into a true global emergency, which the United Nations now describes as without precedent since World War II. While the COVID-19 crisis is undoubtedly global in nature, challenges faced by individual countries and localities vary significantly and can be overwhelming. Tenaris is focusing its response efforts on identifying the most pressing needs in communities and using its global capabilities to alleviate them.
“Many of our communities are extremely vulnerable right now. The coronavirus is proving to be an enormous challenge to health care systems even in developed countries,” acknowledges Erika Bienek, Community Relations Director for the Techint Group, parent company of Tenaris. “That is why in formulating our strategy, we prioritized the needs of medical institutions. We wanted to hear directly from them how best to design and implement an action plan to reinforce the intensive care units of each hospital, so they are prepared to face this crisis”
Tenaris has allocated more than six million USD to procure medical supplies and to support vulnerable populations across Latin America, Europe and North America, focusing on its local communities, such as Campana, Argentina; Veracruz, Mexico and Bergamo, Italy.
The company is sending supplies ranging from personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical workers to much needed ventilators, with deliveries already made to community hospitals in Colombia, Romania, Canada, the United States and Mexico. Meanwhile, teams in Argentina and Brazil are pressing ahead with their plans to distribute much needed supplies in the coming days.
“Finding these supplies has not been easy,” admits Ronaldo Silva, Community Relations Manager at Tenaris’s facility in Colombia. “We are happy to have been able to find medical supplies and equipment, including eight ventilators, for our local hospital.”
To learn about Tenaris’s management plan to address the COVID-19 crisis, please visit https://www.tenaris.com/en/covid19/
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