60 tons of medical gear is to be flown in from China to Israel to help the fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Ministry of Defence has announced.
The ministry has hired CAL Cargo Airlines, an Israeli airline, to courier the equipment in five cargo flights, the first of which, a Jumbo 747, was on its way to the country as of Sunday evening. In total 12 million masks, 1.3 million N95 surgical masks, and 1.2 million lab coats are being imported in the load.The medical supplies are produced in China by the Israeli firm Medical Sion, it will also supply more products from its Mexico based factory in the near future.This is in addition to a further 10 million masks which were procured last week. It will also complement the production of tens of millions of masks ordered by the Ministry of Defence, to be manufactured at Medical Sion's factory in Sderot.
The ministry added that the ongoing efforts to deliver medical gear to Israel through the air is on-going, pointing to the arrival of seven El Al Dreamliner Jets with tons of medical products as a recent example.