Mayor Rui Moreira of the northern Portuguese city of Oporto has said a Chinese company will supply the São João Hospital there with ventilators for patients in critical condition after catching the Covid-19 coronavirus, Lusa reports.

The Portuguese news agency says the supplier is a company in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, but fails to identify it.

The report quotes Mr Moreira as saying in a written statement that he contacted the Chinese authorities through the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the Chinese central government.

The deal was made possible only by what the mayor calls the extraordinary relationship between Macao and Oporto, the report says.

City twinning arrangements link Oporto, Macao and Shenzhen, Lusa says.