NELSON MANDELA BAY - CITY WELCOMES DONATION OF 30 000 MASKS FROM TAIWAN TO BATTLE COVID-19 IN THE METRO

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Executive Mayor, Cllr Nqaba Bhanga, has welcomed a significant donation of Personal Protective Equipment from the Taiwanese Government that was handed over on Tuesday to assist the City in its battle with the COVID-19 third wave of infections.

With a total of 3073 COVID-19 active cases currently, the City is continuing to partner with different stakeholders in an effort to decrease the increasing number of active cases and deaths while also encouraging more residents to vaccinate.

With the donation of 30 000 masks to the City, Mayor Bhanga said the PPE would go a long way in protecting frontline workers and residents who were in great need of the masks.

“We appreciate the donation by the people of Taiwan, this is not the first gesture of donation from them. In the past they have donated wheelchairs, computers, and rice to the people of this City and now they are bringing another contribution to the people of this City for us to be able to fight COVID-19. We are going to use the masks in different places, for our staff, communities and maybe schools, as there are children who might not have masks and we have seen a new outbreak in schools.”

“We have created a long standing relationship with that country because we believe that we are an open society, we are friends to everybody and we want a world where friendship is promoted. We want a world of prosperity and unity and we believe that all of us belong to the same human race. Nobody should be discriminated against and that is why we are unapologetic about having a relationship with the government of Taiwan. We are engaged to exchange programmes,” said Mayor Bhanga.

Director General from the Taipei Liaison Office, David Lin said it was important for Cities to work together as COVID-19 was a global challenge.

“In Taiwan we have a population of 24 million people and the active COVID-19 cases that we were reported for yesterday were only 18. We are bringing this donation to say we are here to assist, let us assist each other and overcome COVID-19 together. We have a low infection rate right now in Taiwan because residents listen to the government and we have encouraged many people to vaccinate. We are looking forward to continue to work with the NMBM and we hope the 30 000 masks we have donated today make a huge difference and further spreads our message of love and caring for one another,” said Lin.

Mayor Bhanga said the donation came at the right time as masks were still needed despite residents’ vaccination status.

“We encourage our residents to vaccinate. We are really worried about the hesitation; people are dying due to COVID-19 every day. It further worries us when the educated and middle-class people are doubting science that has been tested and approved. Although we encourage all those eligible to get the vaccine to take it, they will still need to wear masks so this donation will go a long way,” he said.

NMBM