COVID-19: Hills Councillor Mike Thomas pictured with 4000 sets of medical clothing sent to china
A Sydney councillor has been pictured with thousands of sets of protective medical equipment donated to Chinese hospitals by the broking company he runs before calls to conserve Australian supplies. SEE THE PICTURES HERE.
Hills Shire
Don't miss out on the headlines from Hills Shire. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Where mini-metro hospitals will be built in Sydney
- ‘Extreme wait times’: Western Sydney hospital crisis
An Australian broking firm lead by a Sydney councillor donated more than 4000 sets of protective medical scrubs offshore to mainland China in response to the coronavirus before the NSW Government made desperate calls for equipment.
Hills Shire Liberal councillor and AETOS Capital Group senior vice president, Mike Thomas, was pictured with representatives of the financial trading services firm in front of thousands of sets of medical protective clothing that was sent to four different frontline hospitals in Hubei, China, in February, just days before Australia started recording initial cases.
In a media release issued on February 12, an AETOS Capital Group spokesman said the medical supplies were distributed to Hubei Huanggang Central Hospital, Hubei Macheng People’s Hospital, Hubei Xiaogan Central Hospital and Yingcheng People’s Hospital of Hubei Province via the Hubei Charity Foundation.
Cr Thomas told The Daily Telegraph the donation was made to “help contain the global spread of this virus”.
“At the time this assistance was planned, the outbreak was in China only,” he said.
“He said the company attempted to donate 200,000 face masks locally, “however, due to the cancellation of flights we were unable to transport them”.
“As a result, we bought locally and donated over a hundred thousand additional face masks,” Cr Thomas said. “Our support has been considerable and we hope our donations have assisted in limiting the global spread of this virus.
“We will continue to assist good causes where we can.”
When asked which organisations the masks were donated to in Australia, Cr Thomas said he was unable to provide further information before deadline, however, told The Daily Telegraph orders were made for “students” on April 17 and May 5.
At the time of the original donation, AETOS managing director Cui Xiaolei said the “prevention and containment of the virus is at a critical moment”.
“Being part of the Overseas Chinese community, AETOS hopes to contribute to the medical staff fighting in the frontline of epidemic prevention and control,” he said.