29 June

The Royal Air Force (RAF) has started delivering the UK-aid funded medical supplies to Africa to support their fight against Covid-19. A C-17 transport aircraft carrying a field hospital took off from RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, for Accra, Ghana, on Saturday. It is the first in a series RAF flights funded by the Department For International Development in response to a request by the United Nations (UN) to NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre. The nearly 130ft field hospital will be transported in up to five flights in the next few weeks. It will allow for the care of 92 people.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has submitted contracts to procure more than 10.9bn items of personal protective equipment (PPE), worth more than £5.8bn. The orders have to be approved by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The MoD has already been granted permission for orders for 9.7bn items of PPE that include 4.9bn gloves, 3.2bn face masks, 811m aprons, 565m safety glasses and 156m gowns.

US Africa Command (AFRICOM) has collaborated with the multinational Heavy Airlift Wing (HAW) to deliver critical supplies to East Africa. The shipment included medical personal protective equipment and blood, as well as ammunition for the forward-deployed field medical troops supporting East Africa operations. HAW is based in Pápa Air Base, Hungary, and provides strategic airlift support for ten Nato nations and two peace partners.