Poland to receive protective gear, tests from China to fight coronavirus

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland will receive more than 10,000 test kits and tens of thousands of other protective items such as masks, goggles and shoe covers from China to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak, Poland’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement late on Wednesday.

“Even though the fight with coronavirus is ongoing in China, they decided to show solidarity with Poland and help our country by providing tests to uncover COVID-19, as well as protective medical gear,” the statement said.

China will send 20,000 masks, 5,000 protective suits, 5,000 medical goggles, 10,000 single-use medical gloves and 10,000 shoe covers to Poland, the statement says.

China has already promised to export medical gear, such as masks and respirators, to countries like Italy and South Korea.

A number of European countries, such as Germany and France, said they would limit exports of certain medical products such as masks to avoid shortages at home as the coronavirus outbreak worsened this month.

China has reported nearly 81,000 infections and 3,237 deaths in the mainland from the coronavirus epidemic, which emerged late last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska; Editing by Alex Richardson)