Photo: Chinanews.com

 
Truckloads of 26.4 tons of coronavirus prevention supplies arrived in Italy on Friday, the first batch of supplies donated by Chinese people from Eastern China’s Zhejiang Province.

Trucks loaded with 4,556 boxes of supplies such as face masks, protective clothes and eye goggles arrived in northern Italian city of Turin on Friday night after landing in Belgium from Zhejiang, East China, the Chinese News Service reported.

The majority of the supplies will be donated to the Piemonte Regional government in northern Italy while the rest will be distributed to local communities where pockets of coronavirus infections have been found.

More than 300,000 people from Zhejiang Province now reside in Italy. The Zhejiang provincial government and overseas Chinese organizations worked together to purchase and send the supplies.

By Friday, 17,660 cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in Italy by Friday, with the death toll rising quickly to 1,266. And, Piemonte chief Alberto Cirio tested positive for the virus earlier this month.

A 9-member Chinese medical experts team, together with tons of medical supplies, arrived at Rome's Fiumicino Airport on Thursday night as part of Chinese government’s efforts to help Italy fight the coronavirus pandemic.