Medical Supplies flown out to fight COVID-19

An airport staffer unloads boxes of medical masks donated by Shenzhen from a plane landed in Budapest. SD-Agencies

A plane from Shenzhen landed in Budapest on Sunday morning, carrying 1.36 million protective masks, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Szijjarto, announced on his Facebook account.

These masks will be used by doctors, nurses, police officers and soldiers who are fighting the war against the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the minister.

Another six planes loaded with tonnes of protective gear landed in Budapest yesterday morning.

Flight CZ3071 of China Southern Airlines left Shenzhen for Sydney on Sunday evening, marking the start of international passenger flights redesignated as cargo flights for the company in Shenzhen, sznews.com reported yesterday.

To meet the international demand for medical materials from China in the fight against COVID-19, the airline company has recently transformed passenger planes into cargo planes. The refitted Shenzhen-Sydney cargo flights will operate twice a week.

The redeployment of passenger planes for cargo service satisfies demands of the international market for medical supplies, improves efficiency of wide-body aircraft and renders support in the global prevention and control of COVID-19, according to the company.

Earlier last week, Shenzhen Airlines also refitted passenger planes for cargo flights on the route between Shenzhen and Bangkok.

The first A330 flight carried 21 tons of cargo including masks, temperature detecting devices, electronic products and raw materials for industrial processing. The Shenzhen-Bangkok flights operate four times a week.

The Shenzhen-based company will soon open passenger plane-turned cargo flight routes to Kuala Lumpur and Phnom Penh.

Another Shenzhen-based enterprise, BYD Co. Ltd., which has been engaged in the production of masks since the COVID-19 outbreak, will export 300 million masks a month to Japan starting in May through a cooperation with SoftBank Corp. BYD’s production capacity has reached 15 million masks a day, a company spokeswoman said Sunday, confirming the firm will supply masks to SoftBank.

SoftBank’s supply will consist of 100 million N95 masks, which can filter very small particles, and 200 million regular surgical masks.