More medical equipment for frontline healthcare workers is continuing to pour into Spain as airlines and cargo handlers continue to play an essential role in the international relief effort to save the lives of patients with the Covid-19 virus.
In just three days this week, staff working for Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) handled over 450 tonnes of medical supplies, which arrived on freighters and cargo-only passenger aircraft flights from Shanghai, Shenzhen, Doha, Moscow, Addis Ababa, Baku and Uzbekistan. Shipments have included coronavirus testing kits, protective face masks and medical gowns, and respirators.
Over 14,500 people in Spain have now tragically lost their lives in Spain. Globally, there are now more than 1.4m confirmed cases of the disease in over 200 countries, with nearly 82,000 deaths since the outbreak began.
As governments and medical agencies all over the world continue to try to source urgently-needed medical supplies, every new shipment is helping to protect doctors and nurses in hospitals and medical centres, and to treat patients to increase their chances of recovery.
In Spain, Worldwide Flight Services’ (WFS) highly-trained cargo handling teams continue to be first to support the race against time as new equipment arrives at the country’s main airports.
In Barcelona, WFS provided immediate cargo handling for flights from China and Hong Kong, Moscow and Uzbekistan, offloading over 100 tonnes of equipment arriving onboard flights operated by Olympus Airways, Air China, AirBridgeCargo and Volga-Dnepr Airlines. Over 280 tonnes of medical equipment was also processed in Madrid.
The flights were co-ordinated by Spain’s Ministry of Health and the country’s regional healthcare authorities. In the days prior to these latest services, WFS staff in Toulouse also loaded a large quantity of facemasks onto an Airbus flight to Getafe in Spain, part of a delivery of two million masks from Tianjin in China.
Humberto Castro, Managing Director of WFS Cargo in Spain, commented: “Our cargo handling teams on the ground in Spain are doing an outstanding job in supporting the medical response to the current health crisis. The global demand for medical equipment means supplies are arriving from all over the world and our important role is to ensure these cargoes are handled safely and securely, and reach Spain’s brave and inspirational doctors and nurses as quickly as possible. This equipment is saving lives and we will continue to support the relief effort here in Spain in every way we can, just as our WFS colleagues are doing at other major airports across the globe. Our teams have handled cargo arriving on Boeing 747, 757, 777 and 787 aircraft as well as onboard An-124-100 and IL-76 freighters and more flights are on their way to Spain in the coming days.”
