TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan will donate 1.3 million surgical masks to eight EU countries as part of the island nation’s second round of mask diplomacy, Kendra Chen (陳詠韶), deputy director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MOFA) Department of European Affairs, announced at a press conference Tuesday.
The eight European recipients are Slovakia, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
The ministry is discussing logistical details with related agencies of their respective countries in order to get the masks to their final destinations as soon as possible, Chen said. However, he admitted that it was a challenge because of the paralyzed global aviation sector.
In the first round of donations, 10 million masks were donated by Taiwan, including 7 million masks to 11 European countries hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, 2 million to the U.S., and 1 million to its diplomatic allies.
Taiwan began its second round of donations on April 9 by pledging to ship 6 million masks around the world, including Europe and the U.S., which will receive 1 million masks alone. Also counted will be countries not included in the first wave of mask shipments.
CNA cited unnamed government sources as saying that Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines and India would also receive 100,000 to 300,000 masks in the second round of mask donations, depending on their population and severity of their Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.
