PIA plane carrying 17.2 tons of relief goods arrives from China

Another special plane of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) carrying 17.2 tonnes of relief goods from Chengdu, China arrived here on Saturday.

"A PIA special plane with 50 donated ventilators, equipment and personal protective equipments (PPEs) reached Islamabad from Chengdu Saturday," the Foreign Office said, adding that another plane of relief goods from Beijing came on Friday.

"All out efforts are being made by Pakistan missions in China to help the government and [the] National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in every possible way to fight the Covid-19," it added.

The donated goods include 50 ventilators, 68,660 medical masks, 160,000 non-medical masks, besides protection suits, thermometers, gloves, goggles, sanitizers, non-woven cloths and zippers. "All these were donated to the NDMA," it added.

Speaking at the airport, Chairman NDMA Lieutenant General Mohammad Afzal said that the relief equipment was a donation from Pakistani community in China.

At present, he said that Pakistan had achieved the capability to conduct around 40,000 tests per day, while 27 laboratories were fully functional.