A chartered plane carrying 5.83 million face masks is ready to take off from Longwan Airport in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. (Photo provided to China News Service)
(ECNS) -- A chartered plane carrying 5.83 million face masks arrived at Angola International Airport in Luanda on Monday to help fight the coronavirus in the Western African country.
This is the first direct temporary charter route between Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, and West Africa.
As the novel coronavirus is still rampant across the world, many African countries including Angola are still facing the grim task of fighting the pandemic.
Chen Zhihao, chairman of the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce in Angola, purchased 7 million disposable face masks from a manufacturer in Wenzhou and signed a charter agreement with a Portuguese airline.
Thanks to the support of the Wenzhou Airport the approval procedure, which usually takes at least three working days, was completed in one day.
Due to the capacity limit of the plane, the 7 million disposable masks had to be slashed to 5.83 million.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across Africa rose to 84,634 as of Monday afternoon, according to the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
