Mexico thanks Trump for shipment of hundreds of ventilators

Mexico is thanking the U.S. for a shipment of 211 ventilators as part of an aid package President Trump promised Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador last month. 

“We want to very fully thank the government of the United States, especially President Trump,” Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “As the saying goes, when there are hard times is when you know who your friends are.”

Gracias a Chris Landau, embajador de EU en México, Bob Hamilton de ventiladores Hamilton, Jorge Torres de FedEx por haber hecho posible el arribo a México de 211 ventiladores justo hoy como lo previeron los presidentes Andrés Manuel López Obrador y Donald Trump.

— Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) May 5, 2020

Last month, López Obrador announced that Trump had promised to respond when the Mexican president asked for help in obtaining 1,000 ventilators and other medical equipment for intensive care units. In addition to the 211 ventilators, the Mexican government also received a shipment of Swiss-based Hamilton Medical equipment, according to the AP. 

According to the Spanish newspaper El País, Mexico, a country of more than 126 million people, had access to only 147 ventilators last month.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Mexico has reported 24,905 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,271 deaths, though the government has admitted that scarce testing means the number of actual cases is likely much higher.