Protection for frontline workers
Equipment arrives to prevent more healthcare professionals catching the coronavirus
THE VALENCIA government is continuing to source essential medical equipment for the health service from China.
The ninth such flight arrived on Monday night at
Manises airport outside Valencia city with 55 tonnes of cargo.
It contained 2,461,400 facemasks, of which 360,400 were the FFP2 model which is recommended for frontline workers.
There were also 152,600 protective suits and 90,000 pairs of protective glasses.
Regional president Ximo Puig explained that the cargo plane had been contracted by his government as part of their ‘silk route’ campaign.
The previous flight had come in at Manises on Sunday and a tenth flight came in on Wednesday with 2,572,000 facemasks (30.000 of them FFP2), 66,000 protective suits, 170.000 protective glasses and 20,000 thermometers.
Sr Puig noted that their aim is to ensure healthcare workers treating coronavirus patients on the frontline have all the necessary equipment to protect themselves against Covid-19.
Masks are also now being made available for workers travelling on public transport and vulnerable people.
Good trading relations with Chinese provinces, fostered by the Valencia government over recent years, have allowed them to take advantage and ensure that the region’s hospitals can be resupplied with equipment when it is needed.
As a result they have been able to ship in a total of 14.6 million facemasks, 6.8 million pairs of gloves, 708,851 protective suits and 517,600 pairs of protective glasses over the last month.
Despite this, 1,492 healthcare workers in the Valencia region have caught the virus so far. Of these, 428 have recovered and are ready to work with patients again.