Switzerland donated 1 million 145 thousand medical masks of the second level of protection (FFP2) to Uzbekistan. The cargo was delivered to Tashkent airport on Monday, the Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare and Public Health Authority said.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry previously announced that the plane would also pick up Swiss citizens and other people evacuated from Kabul.

It was originally planned to send a 300-seat Boeing 777-300 ER on Saturday and deliver 1.3 million masks, but the charter flight had to be postponed for a short time due to the unstable situation around the Kabul airport.

Today, people can only leave Kabul through the airport. The airport itself is controlled by the US military, but travel from the Afghan capital to the airport is unsafe and access to the airport building is difficult. People wishing to leave the country are escorted to the airport gates only if there are seats on the planes of the German military flying to Tashkent.

“Under these conditions, the capital of Uzbekistan is playing a key role: people who have flown in from Kabul should be able to quickly continue their journey so that space for new military aircraft arriving from Kabul becomes free in Tashkent,” the Swiss Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

On August 23, the Swiss Foreign Ministry announced that eight members of the Swiss Department of Humanitarian Aid (SHA) had flown aboard the plane. Two of them will accompany the evacuees on their way back to Switzerland, while six others will remain in Tashkent to join the team on the ground. The flight will also be accompanied by eight Federal Police Agency (Fedpol) officers who will be responsible for on-board security.