Medical supplies from China arrive in Edmonton

Medical supplies arrive at EIA A cargo plane full of supplies from China arrived at EIA overnight. Nahreman Issa has the details.

EDMONTON — A cargo jet carrying 80,000 pounds of medical supplies from China landed at the Edmonton International Airport early Monday morning.

Alberta's Municipal Affairs Minister Kaycee Madu says this is the first of a series of flights bringing masks and other protective equipment for medical workers in Alberta and across Canada.

“Our government is working very hard on an ongoing basis to secure the personal protective equipment required to keep our health care, continuing care and seniors care workers safe," Madu said. "The arrival of these supplies is a testament to that work."

According to EIA, the shipment was the result of teamwork between the airport, Alberta Health Services, the provincial and federal governments and Canadian company Cargojet.

"EIA’s robust cargo strengths support critical supply chains for medical, pharmacy, food and other essential supplies" EIA president and CEO Tom Ruth said. "Although our passenger movements are substantially down, our cargo movements continue to grow and have never been more important to our community.”

Over the weekend, the Alberta government announced it will begin shipping personal protective equipment and ventilators to British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec this week.