n the middle of an international lockdown the World Health Organization (WHO) helped 19 Azerbaijani doctors who were living in Turkey to return home to train their peers and help prepare hospitals to respond to an influx of COVID-19 patients. A combination of WHO facilitation efforts and collaboration between Azerbaijan and Turkey enabled the doctors to obtain special permissions to travel for the Rapid Scale-up of Essential Capacities for COVID-19 (REACT-C19) project . The highly qualified medical personnel were identified and trained within weeks, and arrived in Baku on a special plane sent by the Azerbaijani Government. “REACT-C19 has proven to be a great example of international collaboration, solidarity and innovation in the face of this global public health emergency,” says Dr Hande Harmanci, WHO Representative in Azerbaijan.