A plane from China carrying 500,000 masks to help Greece combat the coronavirus outbreak landed at Athens International Airport on Saturday.
Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias was among those at the airport to receive the load which was donated by the Chinese public electricity company State Grid and Greek electricity supplier Admie, in which the Chinese firm holds a 25 percent stake.
The load consisted mainly of FFP2 masks which will be distributed principally to hospitals, airport officials said.
Beijing and Athens have been building important commercial relationships for over a decade, especially after the sale of most of the terminals in the port of Piraeus (near Athens) to the Chinese shipping giant Cosco.
With its health system suffering from chronic problems and its economy still creaking after a long-running debt crisis, Greece is facing a shortage of medical equipment, especially masks.
Covid-19 has killed ten people in the country in the past nine days while 495 cases have been recorded, with screening tests being mainly carried out on those suspected of carrying the virus.
After the first death, on March 12, the government adopted strict measures to limit unnecessary movement, ranging from the closure of educational establishments, parks and entertainment facilities to the banning of gatherings of more than 10 people.
The ministry of civil protection has instructed people to stay at home, warning that a complete lockdown will be imposed if their recommendations are ignored.
Chinese plane with a million masks lands in Prague
Prague (AFP) March 20, 2020 –
A plane from China carrying more than one million face masks for the Czech Republic landed in Prague on Friday, the government said.
The Czech government has come under fire over a shortage of medical material which has led thousands of Czechs to make face masks at home as the state banned people from leaving home without their noses and mouths covered.
"The plane behind us contains 1.1 million FFP2 respirators which will be distributed immediately to hospitals and other places," Interior Minister Jan Hamacek told a televised press conference at Prague airport.
Schools, pubs, theatres, cinemas and other facilities are closed across the Czech Republic, an EU member of 10.7 million people, which has registered 774 confirmed cases of the virus with three cured patients and no deaths.
On Saturday, the Czech government expects another China Eastern plane with millions of face masks and an An-124 Ruslan cargo plane carrying over 100 tonnes of medical material from China.
Hamacek said he expected three planes with medical material to arrive from China every week for at least the next six weeks.
A plane with 150,000 rapid virus tests, also from China, already landed in Prague on Wednesday.
