La Liga giants Barcelona will distribute 15,000 Personal Protective Equipments (PPE), which will be a part of an agreement between the Barca Foundation and a Chinese internet company, to help the healthcare workers in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The first installment of 15,000 sets of individual protective equipment (PPE) has already arrived and will ve 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 on Barcelona’s official website.
Last week, the Catalan club, in association with an insurance company, had delivered 30,000 masks to the Catalonia government to overcome the ongoing crisis caused by the deadly outbreak of the novel coronavirus which has affected over 1,57,000 people and killed more than 15,800 in Spain.
“The club has put itself at the service of the health authorities to help to fulfill and enforce all its instructions, recommendations and orders to combat contagion of the virus and alleviate its effects as much as possible,” the club said in an official statement.
Barcelona had earlier informed that all the professional players, including Lionel Messi, and the non-playing staff will face compulsory salary reduction to reduce the financial stress the club is enduring due to the stoppage of football caused by the lockdown in Spain like in most parts of the world.
“Faced with this scenario, the Board of Directors has decided to implement a series of measures to mitigate its effects and reduce the economic effects of this crisis,” the club said.
Other than reducing the wages of the staff, the Catalan giants decided to make available the club facilities, both sporting and annexes, to the Health Department to combat the deadly coronavirus.