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NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 5 – The government says it will send a Kenya Airways plane to China on Wednesday to collect medical equipment to fight the coronavirus that has infected 142 people including 4 fatalities.

This is according to Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia who says the equipment will be used in the intervention to combat the spread of the virus.

Macharia made the revelation when he extended the suspension of international flights by another 30 days, to only allow cargo and planes sent to evacuate foreign nationals.

Macharia’s revelation comes even as China says it has sold nearly four billion masks to foreign countries since March, as they tried to stem widespread fears over the quality of medical exports.

As reported by AFP, Customs official Jin Hai said that despite its cases dwindling, Beijing has encouraged factories to increase the production of medical supplies as the pandemic kills over 60,000 globally and parts of the world face a protective equipment shortage.

According to Hai, China has exported 3.86 billion masks, 37.5 million pieces of protective clothing, 16,000 ventilators and 2.84 million COVID-19 testing kits since March 1 with orders to more than 50 countries.

She added that the country’s medical supply exports were valued at 10.2 billion yuan ($1.4 billion).

China has also increased its production capacity of COVID-19 testing kits to over 4 million a day, said Zhang Qi, an official with the National Medical Products Administration.