China provides medical aid to Palestine to fight COVID-19

Beijing: China has airlifted emergency medical supplies including medicines, quick medical test equipments and ventilators to help Palestine to fight COVID-19.
Chinese Ambassador to Palestine Guo Wei delivered the medical supplies to Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah to strengthen health services for Palestinian patients, local media reported on Tuesday.

He said Beijing would continue to support the Palestinians in their fight against COVID-19 and provide them with all necessary medical equipments and devices to strengthen their resilience, stressing that the Chinese government chartered a private plane in order to facilitate the arrival of aid to Palestine under the air embargo.

Palestinian Minister for Health Mai Kila, who received the shipment, expressed her gratitude to the Chinese people, and said the medical supplies were not available in the domestic and regional markets, therefore the Chinese government was extending its support which was of a great importance.

As per data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the Palestinian territories had been in an emergency situation since the first case of COVID-19 were reported on March 5. The emergency was due to the weakness of the local health sector and the lack of medical equipments to deal with the pandemic, with only 120 ventilators available in hospitals and medical centers in the Palestinian Authority (West Bank and Gaza) to serve more than five million residents.

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, which suffered from a severe shortage of medical supplies and the access of screening strips, announced the completion of two quarantine centers, north and south of the Gaza Strip, to accommodate 1,000 cases.