The plane landed minutes before it was announced the Department of Health announced almost 1,000 more people had died after testing positive for Covid-19 (Picture: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Turkey has donated a plane full of emergency equipment to the UK, as the country tragically loses another 953 lives to coronavirus.

A jet from Ankara carrying personal protective items including surgical masks, N95 industrial masks and hazmat suits landed in London on Friday afternoon, minutes before the Department of Health announced the British death toll had surged to at least 8,931.

As the Turkish defence ministry extended a helping hand, they reminded Britons that the crisis would come to an end by using the words of 13th century Sufi Poet Jalaluddin Rumi.

The equipment arrived in boxes that read: ’After hopelessness, there is so much hope and after darkness, there is the much brighter sun.’


Turkey’s medical aid packages being prepared for a military cargo plane that delivered them to the UK (Picture: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Items inside included surgical masks, N95 industrial masks and hazmat suits (Picture: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The equipment arrived in boxes that read: ’After hopelessness, there is so much hope and after darkness, there is the much brighter sun’ (Picture: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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Turkey has lost 908 lives in the outbreak and has 42,282 confirmed cases, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab thanked Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu over the phone today, saying the supplies were an ‘indication of strong friendship between the two countries’, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Over the past weeks, Turkey has also donated medical supplies to fellow NATO allies Italy and Spain, as well as five countries in the Balkans.

It comes as the German army said it was donating 60 ventilators to the NHS, as the healthcare system races to get hold of enough life-saving equipment in the run-up to the expected peak of Covid-19.

The German ministry said it would not invoice the UK for the ventilators which are made by two specialist German manufacturers, Dräger and Weinmann, according to a report in Der Spiegel.

The NHS currently has around 10,000 ventilators, but Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said 18,000 will be needed to ensure capacity, with the peak of the virus not expected for days.

No information has been released on the quantity of the supplies sent (Picture: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Dominic Raab reportedly thanked Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu over the phone on Friday (Picture: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Turkey has also donated medical supplies to coronavirus-hit Italy and Spain as well as five countries in the Balkans (Picture: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Britain has asked the US for 200 ventilators to fight the coronavirus pandemic, according to Donald Trump.

The president told reporters on Wednesday: ‘The UK called today and they wanted to know would it be possible to get 200. We’re going to work it out, we’ve got to work it out.

He added: ‘They’ve been great partners. They wanted 200, they need them desperately.’

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