Piled floor to ceiling in a giant Boeing 777, a vital new contribution to the war against the coronavirus arrived in Britain yesterday: no fewer than one million high-quality surgical face masks, courtesy of donors to Mail Force.
This 12-ton cargo represents what the head of the National Health Service has called ‘an enormous boost’ to frontline workers.
And the ground staff at London’s Stansted Airport will soon be finding that this a familiar sight.
Because this is just the beginning. Another million of the same masks are already in production and will be on their way next week. And the week after that.
Thanks to the generosity of the British public, a new and steady additional supply of these Type IIR surgical masks is now guaranteed until at least July.
A vital new contribution to the war against the coronavirus arrived in Britain yesterday: no less than one million high-quality surgical face masks (pictured), courtesy of donors to Mail Force
This 12-ton cargo, which arrived in a Boeing 777 (pictured), represents what the head of the National Health Service has called ‘an enormous boost’ to frontline workers
The ground staff at London’s Stansted Airport (pictured) will soon be finding that this a familiar sight, because this is just the beginning
Mail Force’s first million-mask airlift touched down at Stansted yesterday morning in a chartered Chinese cargo flight from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
Some 12 tons of this essential and urgently needed form of personal protective equipment (PPE) emerged into the morning sunshine and was soon transferred to a fleet of trucks.
By the afternoon it was clearing customs and will shortly be heading for different parts of the National Health Service, care homes and the charitable sector.
It is just four weeks since Mail Force was created by the Mail and its partners with the simple goal of bringing as much quality PPE to the Covid-19 frontline as quickly as possible.
The astonishing public response has seen the charity’s war chest grow at magnificent speed, to the point that it is now heading for £9million.
That has allowed the charity not only to procure this huge consignment of quality masks but to place the same weekly order for the next six weeks – for a total of £3million.
Last night Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS, expressed heartfelt thanks to all those who have donated.
‘On behalf of everyone across the NHS, huge thanks to Mail Force for this invaluable practical support. It’s been an enormous boost, coming on top of the Government’s efforts to get us the kit we in the NHS need,’ he said.
Thanks to the generosity of the British public, a new and steady additional supply of Type IIR surgical masks is now guaranteed until at least July. Pictured: The cargo is taken of the Boeing 777 at Stansted Airport
‘It’s helped our doctors, nurses, porters, therapists, cleaners, scientists and countless other staff to so brilliantly care for 90,000 hospital patients desperately ill with Covid-19, as well as continuing to provide essential services such as cancer, A&E and mental health care.’
Mail Force will ensure that substantial volumes of these supplies are directed to the adult care sector and to charities, all of which face constant difficulties in sourcing PPE.
That will become all the harder as much of country starts looking for back-to-work items like face masks.
‘This is a fantastic initiative by Mail Force and all its donors are to be commended,’ said Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, the largest charitable body representing the adult care sector.
‘Finding PPE is a challenge for the long term and we are going to need this equipment for a long time to come.’
Type IIR surgical masks are the higher hospital-grade variety which are currently in extreme demand right around the world.
You will see blue masks – which tie around the ears – in many public places. They will often be used at local care centres and may be on sale at your local chemist.
They are usually Type I or, possibly, Type II masks – a perfectly useful day-to-day precaution.
However, what the NHS and care workers really want are Type IIR masks, the R denoting fluid resistance.
That is an essential component when tiny aerosol droplets of the coronavirus may be circulating at close quarters.
The whole world – including the NHS – is chasing these things in huge quantities.
That is why Mail Force has been keen to source an entirely fresh supply line, one which complements rather than competes with the existing procurement systems at the Department of Health and Social Care.
Through our partners, the Issa Group, we are working with an established family-run manufacturer in Guangxi, where its production line is on the Chinese government’s ‘white list’ of approved suppliers.
Most of its 20million-a-week output of masks is swallowed up by the Chinese state and European health services. Now, a substantial number of them will be added to the UK war chest.
Mail Force’s first million mask airlift touched down at Stansted yesterday morning in a chartered Chinese cargo flight from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Robert Hardman in front of a mountain of face masks
Prior to purchasing these new supplies, Mail Force submitted both masks and certificates for inspection by the experts at the Department of Health.
Meanwhile, in China, the Asia offices of Far Logistics arranged for this first consignment to be driven 700 miles from the factory to the main cargo hub at Guangzhou.
There, it was packed into separate three-ton loads and lifted into the hold of the chartered Boeing 777 freighter for the 12-hour flight to Stansted.
Early yesterday morning, I watched these colossal shrink-wrapped PPE icebergs being swiftly unloaded by the ground staff from cargo handlers Swissport.
While many parts of the UK aviation industry have been furloughed for several weeks, the cargo operators at airports like Stansted have seldom been busier as the usual overnight deliveries of urgent goods like fresh food have been supplemented by streams of extra cargo flights carrying new batches of PPE – just like these.
It certainly puts a spring in the step of the ground staff first thing each morning, when fresh deliveries from the Far East begin to thunder across the Essex countryside before touching down.
‘Everyone likes to feel that they are doing their bit for the NHS and for the country,’ said Steve Bond, Swissport’s station manager.
A single planeload of PPE may not solve anything, of course.
But a succession of them, collectively, is going to make a very great difference.
And there is plenty more where this lot came from.
Just as the tide is turning, YOUR help for caring heroes has never been more vital
Some of it has flown all the way from China. Some of it has travelled just a few miles down the M6.
In the ceaseless quest for new sources of personal protective equipment (PPE), the Mail Force charity is constantly seeking fresh supplies from pretty much everywhere.
We have scoured the Far East, our own back yard and pretty much everywhere in between.
We now have one source of crucial kit being made in Turkey, for example, and another in Blackburn.
Following rigorous checks by the UK health inspectorates, Mail Force will be donating a million Type IIR surgical masks to the health and care sectors this week – and every week for as long as funds allow
This is a campaign which began with a major airlift from China four weeks ago – and continued with another one yesterday.
And what a sight it was! Not just one great pile of surgical masks but a whole mountain range of them. A million of them all told.
Today, they should all have cleared customs and be on their way to the Covid-19 frontline – all thanks to the generosity of the public.
Following rigorous checks by the UK health inspectorates, Mail Force will be donating a million of these Type IIR surgical masks to the health and care sectors this week – and every week for as long as funds allow.
They follow last week’s arrival of a £500,000 convoy of urgently-needed Type 6B gowns from Turkey.
A week before that, we teamed up with a former textile mill in Lancashire which is currently producing half a million Mail Force hospital aprons each week.
They are all yet more key items on the NHS wish-list of equipment for fighting the virus that has brought the country to its knees.
Last week also saw donations to Mail Force break through the £8million barrier – and they just keep on coming.
That is an astonishing sum in the space of a month. It is testimony to the generosity of spirit of the British public – from companies including Marshall Wace and Sky and leading philanthropists such as Hans and Julia Rausing and Sir Brian Souter to public figures like the Duchess of Cornwall and the actress, Emma Thompson.
Most touching of all has been the response of our famously warm-hearted readers.
You have inundated the charity. As of last night, the number of individual donations had sailed past 55,000.
One or two carping critics have accused us of blowing our own trumpet but this paper will not stop saluting all those who have given to the charity while encouraging others to follow suit.
Mail Force is also immensely grateful to international donors including Marc Benioff, founder of the US software giant, Salesforce, and Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York.
This is a global crisis and the whole world is seeking a limited amount of PPE with plenty of pitfalls along the way.
When the RAF was despatched to collect one order of Turkish gowns last month, the plane was delayed for days.
Having identified a proven manufacturer of Turkish gowns, the charity had to join the queue behind a German health authority which had placed a bulk order the day before
Then part of the cargo was later rejected by UK inspectors. These things can happen in a furious, fast-moving international marketplace.
So Mail Force has been treading carefully. Having identified a proven manufacturer of Turkish gowns, the charity had to join the queue behind a German health authority which had placed a bulk order the day before.
Rather than risk delays on the runway, the trustees decided to save money and send the whole lot – all 100,000 of them – overland in lorries.
HERE’S HOW TO DONATE
Mail Force Charity has been launched with one aim to help support NHS staff, volunteers and care workers fight back against Covid-1 in the UK.
Mail Force is a separate charity established and supported by the Daily Mail and General Trust.
The money raised will fund essential equipment required by the NHS and care workers.
This equipment is vital in protecting the heroic staff whilst they perform their fantastic work in helping the UK overcome this pandemic.
If we raise more money than is needed for vital Covid-1 equipment, we will apply all funds to support the work of the NHS in other ways.
Click the button below to make a donation:
If the button is not visible, click here
In the meantime, samples and paperwork could be inspected by the Department of Health and Health and Safety Executive in advance.
Mail Force cannot possibly hope to solve the current shortage of PPE on its own, nor should it.
Its aim is to find new ways of adding capacity to the national supply of PPE. It is working alongside fully-stretched DoH teams while the NHS and the adult care sector devour unprecedented quantities of this stuff the moment it arrives. Luckily, Mail Force is not alone.
There are other fine charities engaged in the hunt.
The demand and the market is such that we can all add to the UK armoury without competing against our own side.
Meanwhile, the number of UK firms entering production on a viable scale is gradually going up.
However, we are now entering a new and crucial phase.
At the very moment that infections are coming down, and the public are daring to wonder if normality might be around the corner, this is precisely the moment when those at the front cannot lower their guard.
Having talked to many carers in recent days, I detect no sense of relief. Rather, I have encountered a mounting fear that, having got this invisible monster under control, they may soon find themselves running out of the basic kit required to keep it at bay.
There are no easy solutions to any of this. We can all but try to do our bit. That is why Mail Force, like its beneficiaries, still needs all the help it can get.