Eleven million face masks arrive in Scotland from China

Around 11 million face masks and 100,000 testing kits have arrived in Scotland from China.

The PPE supplies arrived at Prestwick Airport on Friday morning.

One million of the new masks are earmarked for NHS Wales.

The cargo follows a shipment of ten million masks from Chinese suppliers that arrived earlier this week.

The PPE complements supplies and equipment provided by Scottish businesses that have retooled to support efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon praised the more than 1600 organisations and individuals that have helped.

Chemicals company CalaChem has produced 20,000 litres of hand sanitiser, using alcohol supplied by distillers Whyte and Mackay, with an order in place for a further 560,000 litres over the next four weeks.

Stonehaven manufacturing firm Macphie has started bottling the product and will deliver the initial order into the national supply chain from next week.

Meanwhile Annan-based PPE manufacturer Alpha Solway is currently producing 20,000 face visors per day for the NHS, to fulfil an order of 1.1 million visors.

Sturgeon said: “Scotland’s health and social care system is facing unprecedented demand, so it’s tremendous to see so many step up to support the national response to Covid-19 and I thank them all for their efforts to deliver what is needed, when it is needed.

“Protecting staff working on the front line is an absolute priority and we will continue to do all we can to make health and social care staff feel as safe as possible in their workplace.”

Steve Dunlop, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, said: “The pace and agility of Scotland’s business community has been phenomenal.

“In a short space of time, together we’ve been able to not only source and import supplies in a competitive international market, but also pivot our domestic supply chain and scale up manufacturing here in Scotland to meet the critical needs of the NHS and frontline workers.”

Jim Miller, director for procurement, commissioning and facilities at NHS National Services Scotland, said: “A big part of what we were doing in NHS Scotland procurement is to look at how the money we spend with suppliers can have a positive impact on the Scottish economy.”