100,000kg of COVID-19 protective equipment jets into Malta

A cargo plane carrying 100,000 kilograms of protective equipment from China has landed in Malta on Friday, in one of eight such flights organised by the government.

The flights, organised by Air Malta in collaboration with Qatar Airways, will be bringing some 800,000 kilograms of supplies and equipment to the islands.

Friday’s arrival confirmed what Public Health Superintendent, Professor Charmaine Gauci had announced earlier - that "equipment required for the prevention of the coronavirus, as well as for recovery of patients, is arriving in a continuous flow.”

“The pandemic has caused us to stay at home but a whole stratum of workers had to leave home and go to work, some coming into daily contact with the coronavirus,” said Health minister Chris Fearne. “It is essential that these workers have protective equipment... Therefore the government was proactive from the very beginning in procuring this protective equipment: masks, gowns, visors, for all health workers and frontliners.”

The cargo flight was organised through collaboration between the Health Department and Central Procurement and Supplies Unit, Air Malta, the Foreign Ministry and the Maltese embassy in China, Fearne said. Malta was now one of the countries which had sufficient protective equipment for its healthcare workers, concluded the minister.