Chinese medical supplies on COVID-19 for Europe are unloaded at the airport of Liege in Belgium, on March 13, 2020. A plane carrying Chinese medical supplies for Europe, including face masks and testing kits on COVID-19, landed here on Friday night. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)
Donated by Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation, the half million facial masks will be checked and delivered by trucks to Italy, where the local Red Cross will receive and handle them.
"Vanish, o night! At dawn, I will win!" The posters attached to the parcel carry the lyrics from "Nessun dorma", an aria from Giacomo Puccini's "Turandot."
LIEGE, Belgium, March 14 (Xinhua) -- A cargo plane carrying Chinese medical supplies for Europe to assist its battle against COVID-19 landed in Liege, Belgium on Friday night en route to Italy.
The supplies, donated by two charities -- Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation, comprise half a million face masks, which will be sent to Italy next week.
"Vanish, o night! At dawn, I will win!" The posters attached to the parcel carry the lyrics from "Nessun dorma", an aria from opera Turandot written by prominent Italian composer Giacomo Puccini.
Italy is the most affected European country, with 17,660 infections overall and 1,266 deaths as of Friday. The country has been put in total quarantine for four days, and the shortage of personal protective equipment is acute.
Joey Tan, head of Business Strategy in Alibaba Group Globalization office, said the half million masks will be checked and delivered by trucks to Italy, where the local Red Cross will receive and handle them.
Chinese medical supplies on COVID-19 for Europe are ready to be unloaded at the airport of Liege in Belgium, on March 13, 2020.(Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)
The two charities are donating in total 2 million masks and other crucial supplies such as test kits to Italy and other hard hit countries like Spain and Belgium.
Tan said the supply was mobilized after close consultation with European authorities.
Friday's shipment, which is the first batch, arrived at Alibaba's logistics hub at Liege Airport, the biggest cargo airport in Belgium. Three additional shipments are due over the next few days.
This is the first major donation flown into Europe since the novel coronavirus broke out in the continent in late February.
"We've known that some companies are preparing donations, but this is the first one we have actually received here," said Bert Selis, vice president of Liege Airport for Commercial Cargo & Logistics.
Europe, with 28,297 reported cases and 1,191 deaths as of Friday morning, has been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We have the honor ... to be part of this friendship and solidarity day," said Michel Kempeneers, COO Overseas of Wallonia Export-Investment Agency, a governmental agency of the Walloon Region of Belgium.
Kempeneers noted it is like returning kindness. "A few weeks ago, we sent a lot of medicines and equipment to China to support our friends in Wuhan," he said, adding that Wallonia maintains sistership with China's Hubei Province, of which Wuhan is the capital city.
Friday's move was the latest Chinese effort to provide medical help for other parts of the world after the epidemic seems to be under control in China. A team of Chinese medical experts arrived in Rome, Italy on Thursday, bringing with them 30 intensive care units. ■
