New shipment of contamination equipment has arrived in Norway
Large amounts of facemasks and other contamination equipment arrived in Norway by air on Friday. The equipment is provided by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, China’s richest man.
The aircraft is the second one with contamination equipment that has arrived in Norway this past week. The equipment will now be distributed to the country’s health authorities and municipalities as soon as possible.
“This will improve the situation in the health service. But it is not a matter of relieving pressure until we have all the contagion equipment we need to deal with the pandemic on Norwegian soil,” says CEO Cathrine M. Lofthus of Southern and Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Sør-Øst) in a press release.
So far, Hospital Procurement (Sykehusinnkjøp) has entered into around 70 agreements for a three-digit million amount for the delivery of contagion equipment.
The equipment that arrived from Shanghai on Friday is donated by the Alibaba Foundation and the Jack Ma Foundation. The foundations are donating medical equipment to help Europe fight the spread of the coronavirus.
“We have agreed to this donation of infection control equipment from the Alibaba Foundation, but emphasized that Norway will compensate the value of the equipment with funds for the international work to combat the coronavirus. Norway has, among other things, given 2.2 billion kroner to the vaccine initiative CEPI, which is far above the value of what we get from the Alibaba Foundation,” writes Health Minister Bent Høie in an SMS to Dagens Næringsliv.
Jack Ma is involved in both foundations and is considered China’s richest man.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
