Medical support equipment purchased by EDP and China Three Gorges (CTG) to support Portuguese hospitals has arrived in Lisbon earlier today, April 5. A TAP airplane left Beijing yesterday with 20 tonnes of medical material, including EDP and CTG's donation of 50 ventilators, 200 medical monitors and consumables, as well as medical support material, worth €4 million.

The equipment arrived with the slogan in both Portuguese and Chinese: the Portuguese one, a famous proverb “A união faz  força’’, which means “ the union makes strength”; and the one in Chinese expresses the same wish of friendship and union, which means “distance never separate true friends”.

All this material, which has already been approved by the Ministry of Health, could be decisive in treating Covid-19 patients at a time when the number of cases in Portugal is still on the rise and the availability of such equipment has proved insufficient in the face of current needs.The equipment arrived at the Portuguese Embassy in China last weekend and was prepared for transport to Lisbon over the last few days. The material was delivered earlier today at Humberto Delgado Airport in the presence of the Secretary of State for Health, Jamila Madeira, and other government officials. This equipment will now be allocated to healthcare units across the country, as per the instructions of the Ministry of Health.

This is just one of the several initiatives EDP has been implementing to participate in the collective effort of the medical teams fighting the pandemic crisis on the ground. Earlier this week, EDP started delivering personal protection equipment worth €500,000 to patients and medical staff across the country. This list includes 500,000 surgical masks, over 20,000 FFP2 masks (respirators), and 10,000 protection suits.

Through EDP Comercial, the company has also rolled out a 20% discount on electricity bills over the next two months for NHS doctors, nurses and technicians. This 20% discount also applies to particularly vulnerable homes and communities - an initiative that could benefit as many as 500 institutions. Moreover, the company has also decided to provide free electricity to all the hotels that have been requisitioned to provide accommodation to hospital staff during the pandemic crisis.

These contributions show that EDP stands with the Portuguese people by providing crucial support on several fronts, including healthcare institutions and medical teams fighting this pandemic on the ground.