Taiwan donates 1 million masks to help protect medical personnel combat COVID-19 pandemic

Jose Kalathil: The Government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) has donated one million face masks to India to help protect frontline medical personnel. The masks which were brought to India by a special chartered flight on 4 May 2020, were handed over by Ambassador Chung-Kwang Tien of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre in India to Mr Neel Kamal Singh, Deputy Secretary General of the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS), at a ceremony here on Friday.

Ambassador Tien said that the virus neither respects national boundary nor races and gender. Therefore the assistance and helps should not be limited by nations, races or genders. “Taiwan has shown to the world that due to the preemptive preparations, the right policy implemented by the Government, the trust established by the people towards the Government and the lesson learned after the 2003 SARS, Taiwan has been recognized and praised greatly by international communities and countries around the world in terms of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Taiwan will be very much like to share her experiences as well as the PPE material such as masks with all the countries in need,” he said.

The ambassador, complimenting the extraordinary efforts the Indian Government has made in curtailing the spread of COVID-19, conveyed Taiwan’s concern and best wishes to the Government and people of India. Highlighting India as an important and valued partner to Taiwan, he expressed strong confidence that India will prevail over the challenges and restore momentum and economic growth. He also said that the Government of Taiwan will continue to evaluate the evolution of the pandemic, its domestic demand and situations of friendly countries to make further timely contribution to the international community.

On behalf of Indian 30 million members of the IRCS and people of India, Mr Singh commended that Taiwan has set a norm in epidemic prevention and containing. He expressed deep appreciation for Taiwan’s timely donation and guaranteed that IRCS will properly allocate the masks to frontline medical personnel to help protect them during combating the pandemic.  

Since 25 March 2020, Government of India imposed a national lock down to curtail the increase of cases and save lives. In the spirit of “Taiwan can help! And Taiwan is helping,” so far, the island republic has donated 25.5 million face masks and other medical supplies to the most needed countries, including the United States, European Union member states, other European nations, diplomatic allies, 18 countries across Indo-Pacific and some African and Mideast countries. This timely donation will support medical care workers in containing the spread of COVID-19 around the world.

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