Chinese plane with a million masks lands in Prague

A plane from China carrying more than one million face masks for the Czech Republic landed in Prague on Friday, the government said.

The Czech government has come under fire over a shortage of medical material which has led thousands of Czechs to make face masks at home as the state banned people from leaving home without their noses and mouths covered.

"The plane behind us contains 1.1 million FFP2 respirators which will be distributed immediately to hospitals and other places," Interior Minister Jan Hamacek told a televised press conference at Prague airport.

Schools, pubs, theatres, cinemas and other facilities are closed across the Czech Republic, an EU member of 10.7 million people, which has registered 774 confirmed cases of the virus with three cured patients and no deaths.

On Saturday, the Czech government expects another China Eastern plane with millions of face masks and an An-124 Ruslan cargo plane carrying over 100 tonnes of medical material from China.

Hamacek said he expected three planes with medical material to arrive from China every week for at least the next six weeks.

A plane with 150,000 rapid virus tests, also from China, already landed in Prague on Wednesday.

© 2020 AFP