New England Patriots
(Photo : Reuters)

The New England Patriots use their private plane to fly in around 1.2 million N95 masks and 300,000 of this wil be going to New York according to a recently published article. 

This is now the time that everyone must step up and help one another to combat COVID-19. This is not the right time to do business over charity works. And this is what the New England Patriots did after they let their private plane to fly 1.2 million N95 masks in from China.

Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts has secured more than a million of N95 masks from Chinese manufacturers but has difficulty in bringing the masks in the United States. He reached out to Robert Kraft, the team owner of New England Patriots, who responded positively by letting him use the team's private plane that they use to travel to their games.

Governor announced on Thursday that "The Krafts were terrific. They were a phone call away and immediately went to work on the logistics associated with this and did not stop until they could make it happen. This was a total team effort on every level."

Getting the masks from China was not easy because the Chinese government did not officially sign off the trip until March 27. Jim Nolan, Kraft Sports, and Entertainment chief operating officer said during the interview that some of the hurdles they encountered were only cleared after multiple states, the United States, and international entities cooperate.

Nolan said: "Chinese technology company Tencent was a huge help in the process. It agreed to gather the masks, got them through the inspection process, stayed with them to ensure their security and eventually their movement on to the Patriots' plane."

Nolan also shared that part of the agreement was once the plane landed in China, they are only given three hours to load and fill the plane with N95 masks. According to the flight tracker of Nolan, it says that his people have been on the ground for two hours and 57 minutes. 

Nolan also shared that Tencent looked after 1.7 million N95 masks but the Patriots plane took on only around 1.2 million masks. Nolan added that they have been working with Tencent to bring in additional equipment back from China via a cargo plane.

The N95 masks will be used by the medical healthcare workers or frontliners in Massachusets and 300,000 of these will be given to New York to help the medical personnel in the city. Gov. Baker added that Rhode Island will also receive their N95 masks. 

Meanwhile, James White, Patriots running back, is not surprised by the kindness and generosity of Kraft in helping to combat COVID-19. He expressed his gratitude and admiration to the Krafts during a conference call on Thursday.

White said during the conference: "As soon as you step into the building, you see how much the Kraft family does helping out not only the Boston community but the community across the world and it makes you want to help others." 

This is also a strong message for other major team league owners to do their share in helping the medical personnel and those who fight for COVID-19 to step up. This is the right time to show to the world their affection and love for the people around them.  

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