An RAF military transport jet has left the UK to pick up delayed cargo of personal protective equipment from Turkey, that is urgently needed by the NHS
The RAF Atlas jet departed from an airbase in Oxfordshire and another two Royal Air Force planes are scheduled to follow within the next 24 hours.
The jet is estimated to arrive in Turkey and get back into the UK within 12 hours, the earliest the first amount of cargo of important COVID-19 supplies will land back at RAF Brize Norton early on Tuesday morning, followed by two more planeloads.
That is two days later than when housing secretary Robert Jenrick announced that the “significant” PPE cargo would arrive in the UK.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson confirmed the delay On Sunday, and said he hoped that the vital equipment would be arriving in the UK on Monday.
at Sundays Daily coronavirus press briefing, Mr Williamson said:
“I think we all recognise the enormous strain that has been placed on the whole system and we also recognise that right across the globe people are trying to get the same items of PPE from quite a limited number of suppliers,”
Concerns about PPE shortages were addressed again at today’s coronavirus press briefing, when Chancellor Rishi Sunak says the government is “working hard” to get frontline workers the personal protective equipment they need – and they are “working to resolve” a Turkish shipment of PPE after some “unexpected delays”.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department of Health and Social Care have yet to give any official reason as to why there is such a delay.
Turkish sources said the delay was unrelated to them.
“There was never a problem from the Turkish authorities, on the contrary all permissions have been issued very swiftly,” a Turkish official said.
A request for the Personal Protective equipment was only submitted on Sunday evening by the UK, and the Turkish company that is providing the PPE had yet to apply to send the shipment to the Ministry of Health until today, according to the official.
This morning, Oliver Dowden the culture secretary, said that he was “confident” that the 84 tonnes of PPE would leave Turkey “later on this afternoon”.
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