Chinese government contributes to donation of anti-epidemic supplies to Costa Rica via CIDCA in April 2020 (Linked to Record ID#95163, #95165, #95166)

Project narrative

On or about April 3, 2020, the Chinese government committed a donation of supplies to Costa Rica to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The materials were transported from Shanghai to Juan Santamaría airport in Alajuela via three charter plane flights, which departed April 25 to April 27, 2020. The first flight arrived in Costa Rica on April 26, 2020, and the other two arrived over the course of April 26 to April 28th. A group of organizations contributed to the donation, including the Chinese government via the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), the Fujian Provincial Government, the Chongqing Municipal Government, the Jiangsu Provincial Government, unspecified other cities and provinces, and an unspecified group of NGOs and private companies. The contribution made by each donor is unknown. The Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) facilitated the transportation of the donation from the airport to the CCSS Storage and Distribution Area (ALDI), which would subsequently distribute the materials to health centers around Costa Rica. CCSS also coordinated with the Costa Rican National Commission of Emergencies (COE) and Customs authorities to carry out logistics. The materials from, at minimum, the first flight were processed and sent to the distribution center the same night they arrived: April 26, 2020. The official handover ceremony for the donation took place on May 15, 2020, during which the Chinese Ambassador to Costa Rica and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica signed the handover certificate. Official sources disagree on the number of supplies donated. China's Ministry of Commerce reports that the total donation (that is, all three flights) contained 100,000 sets of disposable protective clothing, 10,000 N95 protective masks, 100,000 medical surgical masks, 110,000 medical isolation eye masks, 100,000 pairs of disposable sterilized rubber surgical gloves, and 100,000 pairs of medical isolation shoes (520,000 total pieces weighing about 55 tons). China's Embassy in Costa Rica reported that the three flights contained a combined 726,000 pieces of medical supplies and PPE. Costa Rica's Office of the President reported that the first flight alone contained 40,000 disposable gowns, 40,000 disposable surgical masks, and 140,000 monocular eye protection glasses (186 cubic meters total), the latter of which is mutually exclusive with the China Ministry of Commerce's number of medical isolation eye masks (110,000 over all three flights).