Turkey Sends Planeload Of Emergency Equipment To Britain To Help Battle Coronavirus
Turkey has begun sending planeloads of emergency personal protective equipment to the UK, in a bid to help in the fight against coronavirus.
MailOnline reports that the first flight left Ankara earlier today, packed with surgical masks and hazmat suits. A second flight is due to take off on Saturday.
The boxes containing the PPE displayed the words of 13th century poet Jalaluddin Rumi on the side, which read: “After hopelessness, there is so much hope and after darkness, there is the much brighter sun.”
Turkey’s generosity to the UK came after the country sent medical supplies to both Italy and Spain, with the Turkish Defence Ministry writing on Twitter: “At the direction of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, [the] Turkish Armed Forces aircraft that will transport to [the] United Kingdom the medical aid supplies prepared by Turkey’s Health Ministry to be used in the fight against Covid-19, has departed Etimesgut/Ankara.”
The state-run Anadolu Agency said that the UK’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab had thanked Turkey during a phone call that took place on Wednesday.
Raab’s Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, went on to describe the conversation as an ‘indication of strong friendship between the two countries’.
Meanwhile, Germany is preparing to donate 60 mobile ventilators to the NHS as soon as possible.
In a statement, the German Embassy said: “Support for our friends in the UK – the Bundeswehr is donating 60 mobile ventilators to the UK.”
Earlier today in a UK government press briefing, Health Secretary Matt Hancock addressed concerns regarding the numbers of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) available to NHS and social care workers.
He assured the country that there was enough PPE to go around but that it was a ‘precious resource’ and needed to be treated as such, adding that 742 million pieces of PPE had been delivered to front line workers.
The Health Secretary also called on companies who had the capacity to help produce more PPE to do so.
It comes as the UK registered a further 980 deaths related to Covid-19, bringing the total to 8,958.
Mr Hancock added: “We never forget behind this number, behind each one is a name, a loss and a family which will never be the same again.”
