The first shipments of Taiwanese surgical masks donated to other countries have begun arriving at their destinations. Last week, Taiwan announced that it would donate 10 million face masks to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic internationally.
The European Union’s Crisis Management Commissioner, Janez Lenarcic, said Thursday that the EU has received shipments of masks from Taiwan. He says the EU will first distribute one million of the masks to Italy and Spain, the member states that have been hardest-hit by the pandemic.
A separate donation of masks from Taiwan has also arrived in Germany. A number of German parliamentarians were present at the airport when the masks arrived. Chairman of the German-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group, Klaus-Peter Willsch, was among them. Willsch said that the World Health Organization should not bar Taiwan from participating.
Meanwhile, part of a shipment of one million masks to Taiwanese allies in Central America has also arrived. The government announced Thursday that it now plans to donate an additional six million masks to countries in need.