FC Barcelona, through its Foundation, has delivered a total of 30,000 masks to the Government of Catalonia’s Ministry of Health. The masks were donated by the Chinese insurance company Taiping, a regional partner of the club, and mean the health authorities will be able to distribute them as best required to help fight the spread of the coronavirus.
These are daily use masks for non-healthcare staff that were made in China and have arrived in Barcelona this week, and will be distributed to nursing homes. This action is another example of FC Barcelona’s intent to serve. Since the outset, the club has put itself at the service of the health authorities to help to fulfil and enforce all its instructions, recommendations and orders to combat contagion of the virus and alleviate its effects as much as possible. The club is also working through its Foundation to do as much as possible to help with this crisis, both locally and internationally
Taiping, meanwhile, and now that the situation in China is showing signs of improvement, contacted Barça to provide its assistance with containing the virus, which according to the latest estimates has already affected more than 500,000 people worldwide and killed more than 27,000.
At the beginning of the health emergency, when China was one of the countries worst affected and with most infections, FC Barcelona showed its support for the Chinese people with a show of support before the Liga match against Getafe on February 15, when players from both teams came onto the pitch accompanied by the boys and girls of the Penya Dracs Units Xinesos pel Barça, wearing a shirt with the message: Stronger Together in English and 中国加油 in Chinese meaning “Support for China”. At the same time, a canvas was unfolded in the centre circle with the same messages in both languages.
FC Barcelona and Taiping Life Insurance have entered into a partnership agreement last February with which the Chinese insurance conglomerate become a regional partner of the club for three-and-a-half years, as the official insurance partner of FC Barcelona in Greater China.