It's not typical means of travel to international locations, but the New England Patriots plane did just that after traveling to China to bring back millions of N95 masks to those on the front lines battling COVID-19.

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According to the Wall Street Journal, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker struck an agreement two weeks ago to acquire the critically needed masks from a “collection of Chinese manufacturers,” but he had no way of getting them back to Massachusetts.

So he turned to Patriots’ president Jonathan Kraft, and owner Robert Kraft for help. The U.S. State Department was also involved in the deal.

On Thursday,Gov. Charlie Baker tweeted out a picture of the Patriots plane in China with N95 masks being loaded onto the plane.


According to WBZ-TV, special arrangements had to be made to fly to China and to allow the plane to land. No one from the flight crew left the jet during the nearly three hour stop and loading process so they would not have to be quarantined in China for two weeks.

On Wednesday, Gov. Baker announced there are 7,738 confirmed cases in Massachusetts — an increase of 1,118 since Tuesday which is the largest spike the state has seen so far.

 

 

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