Medical gear links Canada, China

While Canada is going full steam ahead to source vital medical supplies amid the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic, a cargo plane bearing 75,000 pounds of PPE from Shanghai landed in Hamilton last Saturday. Another plane with 80,000 pounds of PPE arrived in Edmonton late Sunday night.

The flights were part of a made-for-Canada plan to deliver medical supplies from China to front-line workers across Canada.

The plan stemmed from the critical need for medical masks, gowns and gloves by Canada's healthcare system during its fight against the novel coronavirus.

After a month of dedicated work, various Canadian governments established channels in China to source medical PPE. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier this month that Canada has leased a warehouse in China to collect and distribute additional supplies "as quickly as possible".

Mississauga-based Cargojet will fly to China to secure additional supplies for Canadian governments thanks to the new supply chain for medical equipment that has been established between the two countries.

Still, there's a bidding war underway for key medical supplies in North America during the pandemic.

"There is tremendous pressure on buyers to have boots on the ground in China, because the Americans mostly are beating us to the punch," Ajay Virmani, president and CEO of Cargojet, told the Financial Post. "They're buying anything and everything in sight."

The air carrier has scheduled an average of four or five flights a week to China for the next few weeks. The company has a team of a dozen pilots who will make the trips to Shanghai. Upon arrival, the pilots will get coronavirus tests at the airport, and they will be required to stay in China in isolation for 14 days if they test positive.

Dominic Barton, Canada's ambassador to China, played an important role in collaborating with China to win in the global bidding war for medical supplies, according to CBC News.

A federal official working on the procurement process said Canada is "lucky" to have Barton and praised the former McKinsey managing director as "a businessperson first", adding that he has "good links into China, gets China, gets Chinese business".

It was said the diplomat had redeployed personnel at Canada's embassy, consulates and trade offices in China to flip their roles from selling Canada to the Chinese to buying Chinese medical supplies for Canada.

Among the new suppliers is China's leading new-energy vehicle manufacturer, BYD, which shifted to mask production to meet the rising demand amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The Shenzhen-based company currently is one of the largest manufacturers of face masks in the world, with a daily capacity of 10 million pieces.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford tweeted that he received an "incredible" donation of 32,000 BYD Care single-use masks from the Trillium Automobile Dealers Association last Saturday.

Two weeks ago, Ford warned that his province had a "very low" mask supply and was about a week away from "running out" due to COVID-19.

Canada has struck an agreement with BYD for the production of tens of millions of masks — 30 percent of those are N95-grade masks needed by healthcare workers — and millions of litres of hand sanitizer, according to the Globe and Mail.