MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. /TASS/. Some of foreign countries have stopped supplies of protective gear and medical equipment to combat the coronavirus infection and it would be very difficult to meet the domestic demand without supplies from China, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said on Sunday.
"Countries must always cooperate with each other. China is now helping us. We are buying [protective gear] from it in large amounts. If we did not have such a possibility, I would be frank, it would have been very difficult for us to swiftly react to growing demand from the healthcare system," he said in an interview with the Deistvuyushchiye Litsa (Political Actors) with Nailya Asker-zade program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.
According to the minister, many countries, including Russia, have banned exports of individual protective gear and medical equipment amid the coronavirus pandemic. "They have stopped exports to us. We too have restricted, or to be more previse, banned exports of individual protective gear and medical equipment needed to combat the coronavirus infection. Naturally, we take this situation with understanding," Manturov noted.
"We will not export from other countries because they have banned them. They are in the same situation as we are in because not a single country across the globe was ready for this challenge, even our Chinese friends when they faced this problem," he added.
However, in his words, Russia continues to receive foreign-made components for artificial lung ventilation equipment which is being manufactured in Yekaterinburg.
Russia has already received 300,000 individual protective gear from China and will receive 1.6 million more by late April.
"We have signed [a contract] with our Chinese friends and more than 300,000 individual protective gear have already been shipped. About 1.6 more will arrive by the end of the month," he said in an interview with the Deistvuyushchiye Litsa (Political Actors) with Nailya Asker-zade program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.
According to the minister, production of such gear has been organized in Russia and it is planned to put out 25,000 such outfits a day by the end of the month.
The ministry, in his words, has referred a pilot reusable protective gear to a Russian sanitary watchdog’s laboratory for certification.