Coronavirus response: second airlift brings 73 tons of medical supplies to Poland
An AN-124 cargo plane carrying around 73 tons of medical supplies from China landed in Wroclaw, Poland on Thursday (16 April 2020) to help the country’s fight against COVID-19. The supplies, purchased by the Polish government, included 14 million masks, 300,000 protective suits and a machine to make masks.
This is the second mission that the Polish Armed Forces have undertaken as part of the NATO-supported Strategic Airlift International Solution (SALIS), which provides participating NATO Allies with access to heavy transport aircraft. A previous shipment of medical supplies, with 190,000 masks and 180,000 protective suits, arrived in Poland on 9 April 2020.
Nine NATO Allies – Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – currently participate in the SALIS programme, managed by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, a total of seven SALIS missions have been carried out to airlift urgent medical supplies.