In 2020 the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, in line with its goal to remain in sync and to ensure a better and more immediate response to current social needs and taking into account the emergency arising from the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic, implemented a series of emergency donations to upgrade the infrastructure and equipment of healthcare providers in the country.

Specifically:

• In March 2020 the Foundation donated medical equipment to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the 1st University Department of Respiratory Medicine of “SOTIRIA” Thoracic Diseases General Hospital of Athens aimed at the operation of 2 additional ICU beds in a special isolated area. The ICU of the 1st University Department of Respiratory Medicine of “SOTIRIA” Hospital is a referral unit for hospitalisation of critically ill patients infected with the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The donation consisted in enhancing the unit in terms of equipment, with 2 positive pressure ventilators, 2 patient monitors for continuous vital signs monitoring, 2 electric ICU beds and 1 portable ultrasound scanner, increasing ICU capacity to 12 beds in total.
• In March 2020, the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation launched and completed a donation to the “Thriassio” General Hospital of Eleusis, a SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus referral hospital, reinforcing with state-of-the-art medical equipment its Emergency Department (ED) and the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Latsio Burn Centre, which is an integral, instrumental part of the Hospital, so as to enhance their readiness to deal in a timely manner with to emergency situations.
• Τhe Hellenic Pasteur Institute has been equipped with 4,000 DNA isolation tests and a 96-sample isolation system, to ensure a more effective detection and diagnosis of the coronavirus. The donation was implemented in collaboration with the heads of the respective entities and in consultation with the competent agencies of the Ministry of Health; delivery of the relevant tests and equipment was completed in late April 2020. The donation took place in the framework of the supply of 24,000 diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, in order to meet the relevant needs of the Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics of the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Laboratory of Microbiology of the School of Medicine of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, through the “Collaborating for Health” annual programme, an joint initiative of the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation and the Greek Shipowners’ Social Welfare Company SYN-ENOSIS,