On Sunday morning – shortly after 7 am – the last plane with medical supplies, including masks and respirators, has arrived in the Czech capital.
Since the flights began on March 20, fifty planeloads have carried around 2,000 tons of masks, respirators, and other material.
All the supplies are intended for use by healthcare workers, emergency services, hospitals, and nursing homes.
Firefighters and police officers were in charge of unloading and distributing approximately 13,000 cubic meters of medical devices. The goods were transferred to the police warehouse in Opočínek (Pardubice region).
As of April 30, the government distributed almost 9 million respirators, 62.8 million face masks and over 39 million gloves.
p dir=”ltr” lang=”cs”>? Město se pomalu probouzí a my jedeme dnes ráno na @PragueAirport vyložit poslední letadlo s ochrannýma pomůckama.
Dnes nemáme 23 nákladních aut ale vystačíme si s 8, jelikož se nejedná o nákladní letadlo ✈️@vnitro @jhamacek pic.twitter.com/6wapdqkelX
— Hasičský záchranný sbor ČR (@hasici_cr) May 3, 2020
A growing list of foreign complaints about faulty medical gear and testing kits imported from China has upset Beijing’s designs. Within the last few weeks, scientists and health authorities in Spain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey and Britain have complained of faulty antigen or antibody coronavirus tests purchased from Chinese companies — in some cases, costing these governments millions of dollars.
“It’s a complete mess,” said Dan Harris, a lawyer whose firm Harris Bricken has advised companies on sourcing from China for more than 15 years. He called the current situation “unprecedented,” especially as frenzied Chinese suppliers attempt to recoup losses after months of quarantine.
“A year ago, Chinese companies were fine. Now they’re desperate,” Harris said. “A lot of them know they’re going to be bankrupt in a week. A lot are going to be bankrupt already. So they’re selling bad product, fake product” — and the whole world is buying those products, regardless of how they’re made.
The Czech Republic reported just 18 more cases of the coronavirus on Saturday. This is the lowest daily gain since March 9.
The country had 7,755 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection by Monday morning. So far 3,461 people have recovered and 245 people have died.