A total of eight wide-body aircraft have been mobilized to ship over 5 million pieces of Made-in-Vietnam personal protective equipment to New York, the United States, on order to combat the novel coronavirus.

The final shipment transporting Vietnamese medical equipment successfully
arrived in New York on May 20 (Photo: SCS) 

According to Huynh Quoc Dinh, director of Super Cargo Service, the shipment comes after the US recently placed an order to purchase Made-in-Vietnam medical equipment, including a haul of protective suits, face masks, and gloves for the fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic in the US.

In order to meet the shipping deadline, the company co-operated with four other firms, including Ethiopian Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Eva Airlines, and Philippines Airlines, to use eight large aircraft Boeing 777-300 ER and Boeing 777- 360 ER as a way of successfully transporting the medical supplies.

By the afternoon of May 20 (local time), the final shipment transporting the medical equipment successfully arrived in New York, said Dinh.

Demands for medical supplies are increasing after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo urged residents to wear face masks on April 15, with the city being one of two worst-affected epidemic regions in the US.

Moreover, early May also saw New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio unveil plans to deliver 5 million surgical masks and 2.5 million cloth masks free of charge to the city’s residents over the coming weeks.

CBSNews quoted Mayor de Blasio as saying that the metropolis had placed an order for large quantities of medical protective clothing from a factory located in Vietnam, adding that the city will have sufficient medical supplies by mid-May.

Dinh noted that the country has great potential for exporting medical equipment following plenty of foreign countries highlighting Vietnamese products, with several local firms poised to seize this opportunity.

He added that a number of domestic firms that specialise in manufacturing medical protective clothing have seen their production schedule fully booked for the remainder of the year and will now only receive orders from 2021.