US: Teenage pilot delivers medical supplies to hospitals in rural areas

A 16-year-old boy from the United States is using his flying skills to deliver emergency medical equipment to hospitals in rural areas. According to reports, TJ Kim, who is a high school student in Maryland, brought medical supplies, including gloves, face masks, gowns, hand sanitizers, shoe covers, protective eyewear to small hospitals during his flying lessons. The sophomore's first delivery was on March 27, when he delivered medical supplies to a 25-bed hospital in Luray, Virginia. 

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According to media reports, the staff was grateful to Kim for bringing emergency medical equipment to a rural hospital at a time when most people are busy donating to big city hospitals. Media reports suggest that Kim's recent delivery was of 3,000 pairs of gloves, 1,000 headcovers, 500 shoe covers, 50 non-surgical masks, 20 pairs of protective eyewear and 10 concentrated bottles of hand sanitizer to a hospital in Woodstock. Kim and his family from McLean, Virginia refer to the effort as Operation SOS — Supplies Over Skies.

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The United States is one of the worst affected countries in the world with over 4,00,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. According to data by worldometer, the United States has recorded over 12,800 deaths due to COVID-19 so far, of which 16 deaths came in the last 24 hours. There are currently 3,65,978 active cases in the North American country and it is only one of the four countries with more than 10,000 deaths. 

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Coronavirus outbreak

The deadly coronavirus infection has claimed nearly 82,000 lives across the world and has infected over 14,34,000 people globally since it first broke out in December 2019. China was the most affected country until last month before Italy, Spain, the United States, the UK, France and Iran surpassed it to record the most number of deaths anywhere in the world.  The virus is believed to have originated from a seafood market in China's Wuhan city, the epicentre of the disease, where animals were reportedly being traded illegally.

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(Image Credit: AP)