Coronavirus: Flight delivering PPE from China arrives

A flight delivering 125,000 surgical gowns from China has arrived at Bournemouth airport.

It is the second of a series of flights planned over the next few weeks to provide the NHS with personal protective equipment.

The plane, used for passenger flights only a few weeks ago, arrived in Dorset on Tuesday morning.

The thousands of surgical gowns were immediately unloaded from the hold and from the passenger seats.

Paul Stoddart, European Aviation Group said it has taken weeks of huge logistical effort in order to ensure the delivery happened.

He said: "We had ambassadors, British High Commissioners and NHS staff, all with a will to make this happen as quickly as possible."

Once the PPE is off the plane, the kit is loaded onto lorries and taken to a special NHS Covid-19 distribution centre in the Midlands.

It is hoped this equipment will be used by medical and care workers within the next few days.

The delivery process will then start all over again and teams will await the next flight.

The next plane delivering more PPE will arrive on Thursday.

The flight from Kuala Lumpar will deliver thousands of boxes of surgical gloves.

Four more aircraft will be in action by the end of June, in order to help with further loads.