COVID-19: Barcelona to distribute 15,000 PPEs in partnership with Tencent to hospitals in Spain

Spanish club Barcelona, through its foundation Barca Foundation, will distribute 15,000 PPEs as part of an agreement with Chinese internet company Tencent which has made a significant donation to support the battle against coronavirus pandemic.

"The first installment of 15,000 sets of individual protective equipment (PPE) has already arrived and will be distributed via the Barca Foundation to different hospitals and healthcare professionals currently working to deal with the pandemic and alleviate the effects of coronavirus," read a statement from the club's website.

A few days ago, Tencent launched a USD 100 million Global Anti-Pandemic Fund to help curb the devastating spread of COVID-19. The money will be used to finance basic and vital healthcare supplies, including protective equipment and other hospital and healthcare products. The Barca Foundation has agreed to support Tencent by managing and distributing part of this material in Catalonia.

The comprehensive protection equipment that has arrived includes a hood for healthcare professionals, whose composition and characteristics meet the protection requirements for use in Intensive Care Units (ICU) at the hospitals where care is provided to COVID-19 patients.

To help combat this crisis, the club, among other measures, has made its facilities available to the health authorities and for research projects, such as the one that began yesterday at the Camp Nou and which involves the collection of samples for a study to prevent new COVID-19 infections.

Despite the nation-wide toll reaching 15,238 Spanish authorities are optimistic that the death rate has again slowed after small increases in the previous two days, Al Jazeera reported.