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Coronavirus: 11 million face masks arrive in Scotland

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Female medic in a maskImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Millions of face masks have been flown to Scotland from China, some of which will go to Wales

Scotland's supply of PPE has been bolstered after 11 million face masks and 100,000 testing kits arrived from China.

The supplies arrived at Prestwick Airport on Friday.

It comes after Chinese suppliers sent a shipment of 10 million masks earlier in the week. One million of the new masks will go to NHS Wales.

Scottish businesses have also provided supplies and equipment to support the fight against Covid-19.

The first minister has praised the more than 1,600 organisations and individuals that have helped.

Nicola Sturgeon gave her thanks, saying Scotland's health and social care system is facing "unprecedented demand".

"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," she said.

'Phenomenal pace and agility'

In many cases Scottish firms have retooled in order to manufacture supplies.

Grangemouth-based chemicals company CalaChem has produced 20,000 litres of hand sanitiser, using alcohol supplied by distillers Whyte and Mackay.

The firm has an order in place for a further 560,000 litres over the next four weeks.

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

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

Scottish Enterprise chief executive Steve Dunlop said "the pace and agility" of Scotland's business community has been "phenomenal".

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."