China and Conor McGregor send face masks to Cork
Tens of thousands of face masks have arrived on Leeside from China in the past week, while Notorious MMA fighter Conor McGregor this week sent a second shipment of PPE to Cork.
Up to 21,000 masks have been given to CUH by Cork City Council on behalf of the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office and another 19,000 masks have been handed over to the Mercy University Hospital on the behalf of Wenzhou Chamber.
Last week McGregor sent PPE to the Mercy Hospital and this week he sent a reported 20,000 gloves, 8,500 face masks and 2,000 visors to CUH, which arrived on Monday. On social media last week, Michael Sheridan, CEO of the Mercy Foundation Cork, wrote: “Huge thanks to @NotoriousMMA for donating thousands of pieces of #COVID19 PPE to @MercyCork #FrontLineHeroes.”
Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr John Sheehan said about the donation from China: “This donation, at our time of need, illustrates the depth of the relationship between Cork city and China. We are truly appreciative of this support and it once more underlines how challenges like Covid-19 can only be overcome by people working together.”
PPE donations have been made by the Ireland Cork Chinese Business Association, the government of Hangzhou, CAJ Senior Care Beijing, Ireland China Science and Technology Association (ICSTA) and have been given to acute hospitals and other care settings including nursing homes.
Meanwhile 10,000 face masks have been sent to Cork by the Minzu University of China (MUC) in Beijing, a partner university to UCC.
UCC and MUC have been partner universities for a number of years, and together they organised the delivery to frontline healthcare workers in Cork.
UCC alumni in China have also made donations so that PPE can be purchased for frontline healthcare workers. UCC’s Beijing office organised the delivery of face masks and gowns to healthcare workers, using donations made by alumni who reached out to offer support to their alma mater. The first delivery of face masks was made to CUH.
Emma Connolly, UCC International Office, said the mutual support across the UCC community has offered a silver lining at an uncertain time.
She added: “Since the end of January, we have been sending messages of support to our Chinese community. Little did we think that this would come full-circle, and we are now inundated by goodwill messages from China and offers from alumni to send us PPE.”