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Pretty awesome move from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft who sent his team jet on a mission to China to bring back 1.2 million N95 masks!

Kraft reportedly negotiated with several bigwigs around the globe to get the masks -- used by health workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic -- and once the deal was done, he sent the plane to Shenzhen, China to pick 'em up.

Once it touched down Thursday morning, the plane was only allowed to be on the ground for 3 hours while workers in full-body suits loaded up the masks.

The plane was reportedly upgraded to handle the cargo -- and get this, Kraft is said to have initially negotiated for 1.7 million masks, but they could only fit 1.2 million onboard.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker thanked Kraft and the Pats -- "No days off. Thanks to some serious teamwork, Massachusetts is set to receive over 1 million N95 masks for our front-line workers."

"Huge thanks to the Krafts and several dedicated partners for making this happen."

Both Kraft and Baker are expected to greet the plane when it arrives at Boston Logan National Airport on Thursday.

After it lands, the MA National Guard is set to bring the masks to a central stockpile in Marlborough.

Our sources say Kraft spent several million dollars on the mask mission -- which includes 300,000 masks he will be sending to NYC "out of respect for Andrew Cuomo’s leadership."

We’re told the 300,000 masks will be delivered to the makeshift hospital at the Jacob Javits Center on Friday morning.

”Kraft issued a statement saying, "It is an honor for our family to be a part of this humanitarian mission."

"We knew that purchasing greatly-needed N95 masks and providing the Patriots plane to expedite their delivery to local hospitals would immediately help protect our courageous healthcare professionals."

"Multiple organizations across the public and private sectors, all of which were in lockstep with Governor Charlie Baker's visionary leadership, worked together to execute this mission with the purpose of helping save lives."

"I truly hope that in doing so, we can in some way inspire others to find creative ways to give more in support of our doctors, nurses and first responders. It's nice to care for those who provide such compassionate care for us."

Cardi B is doing her part to make sure medical professionals risking their lives to save others get the nutrition they need while working 12+ hour days.

The rapper donated 20,000 bottles of OWYN -- a plant-based, vegan meal supplement drink -- to NYC-area hospitals for their medical staffs and ambulance crews. We're told she wanted to help the workers who, in most cases, don't even get a chance to eat during their shifts.

Cardi's had some health issues of her own recently, revealing Thursday night she dropped 6 pounds in just a few days with a nasty stomach bug. Cardi went to the E.R. earlier this week but she's home and recovering ... good news.

Cardi was also one of the first celebs to call attention to coronavirus before it hit hard, telling fans it was going to get "real."

As for the OWYN drinks she's donating, the product is 100% plant-based and without dairy, soy, gluten, egg, peanut, tree nut, fish or shellfish.

The dog walking community is hurting across the country -- almost everyone with a leash-for-hire is losing customers under the pandemic ... and it's forcing some of them to get adventurous.

Dog walking companies in L.A., NYC, San Francisco and Seattle all tell us the same thing -- business is tanking, down as much as 50% in some places ... and some have shut down altogether.

One of those is The Dog Walking Network in NYC. Manger Megan O'Leary says business dropped from 120 walks per day to just 30 before they suspended services last week ... after 11 successful years.

In Seattle, an early COVID-19 hot zone, Seattle4Dogs founder Mark Little tells TMZ ... he wasn't comfortable putting his workers at risk so he shut down on March 20 after 17 years in the biz.

Likewise, Hang Around Hound in San Fran, had to layoff 6 employees when it shut down on March 16. Owner Theresa Hedgepeth says several of her 400 clients have autoimmune disorders ... so she felt "reckless bringing their dogs to different neighborhoods when we didn't completely understand the risk."

Some dog walkers are taking precautions to ease the minds of owners worried about their own exposure and their dog's. For instance, Antonio Alfaro in L.A. only takes pups to Topanga Canyon for walks.

It's off the beaten path with relatively few people ... so there's less reason for his 120 clients to be concerned.

Wag! -- a bigger, national company -- is practicing social distancing for pickups and drop-offs, plus masks and gloves for all of their walkers. Based on pics Wag! walkers continue to post, they're rolling along just fine.

BTW, dog walking isn't specifically listed as an "essential business" under most state guidelines -- however, many include pet boarding.

And, for any owners concerned their dogs could possibly carry coronavirus if they go out -- the CDC says there's no evidence regular household pets are carriers.

PETA is not about to let a little thing like a deadly pandemic stop them from fighting for animals ... the protests won't stop, and grocery stores are the big target.

The animal rights org tells TMZ ... protests are focusing on supermarkets because they are one of the few businesses still open in the pandemic, and PETA wants people to make a connection between diseases like COVID-19 and animal agriculture.

PETA protested outside a grocery store in Reno, NV this week ... using a PETA cow to urge shoppers to save animals by going vegan. Next week, PETA says a chicken will be advocating a similar message to shoppers outside a supermarket in Sioux Falls, SD.

While some might question the optics of PETA protesting outside grocery stores in this climate -- scared shoppers standing in long lines -- the org says they've had no complaints from grocery stores.

PETA's got a heart for humans too, and they're taking steps to protect their loyal protesters from catching the virus.

Activists are standing 6 feet apart from one another at protests, and they're handing things out to the public from a safe distance -- at a recent protest, an extended grabber tool was used to distribute toilet paper roles to pedestrians that read, "wipe out animal illness, go vegan."

PETA's also going hands-free for vegan starter kits ... instead of passing out leaflets, a protester holds a big sign with a QR code so folks can download the leaflet on their phones.

Tekashi 6ix9ine has the coronavirus to thank for an even earlier prison release than expected -- the judge just signed off on his request to get out to avoid infection from the coronavirus.

The judge agreed Thursday the rapper should be granted a compassionate release, effective immediately, from the NY facility where he's been held. Instead of serving the rest of his 2-year sentence behind bars ... he'll do it at home.

Tekashi will be on supervised release. During his first 4 months of home incarceration, he'll have a GPS monitor and must remain at an address approved by his probation officer. According to the judge's order, he can only leave if he needs to seek necessary medical treatment or visit his attorney -- and he must get pre-approval from the probation department.

If, for any reason, the GPS monitoring is not available or malfunctioning ... Tekashi must have a daily videoconference with his probation officer. So, he'll be like most of us ... suddenly using Zoom, Skype or FaceTime to stay connected.

Tekashi's lawyers, Lance Lazzaro and Dawn Florio, were going back and forth filing motions to gain his release. At first, Judge Engelmayer denied 6ix9ine's request because he said he didn't technically have the power to release him.

He directed the team to file a request with the Bureau of Prisons and said they were the ones who could bust him out early ... but then that department said they couldn't help him because Tekashi was in a private facility under the watch of the U.S. Marshals Service, instead of a BOP facility.

As a result, the ball was back in Judge Engelmayer's court, and hizzoner just handed down the order releasing Tekashi to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.

BTW ... prosecutors said they had no objection to the compassionate release so long as the judge found there were indeed "extraordinary and compelling reasons" due to his medical conditions that'd place him at high risk during the outbreak. Yep, he did.

You'll recall ... Tekashi was supposed to be getting out later this summer after his conviction on racketeering charges last year. But, in light of the COVID-19 outbreak -- and preexisting conditions, he claims he is potentially high-risk in a prison setting -- 6ix9ine took the opportunity to ask to be sent home even earlier.

Andrew Yang says it's sad but true -- many Americans are aiming their hostilities over the coronavirus at Asians ... but he's trying his best to be empathetic.

The former presidential candidate -- who's Taiwanese American -- tells us he understands that times are tough for everyone right now, and with tough times comes feelings of anger ... and for some, it creates a need to find scapegoats.

Unfortunately, many Asian Americans like Yang are bearing the brunt of what he calls "racial hostility" ... due in part to people falsely equating the coronavirus' Chinese origins to all Asians somehow being responsible for it. It didn't help Trump started calling it the Chinese virus.

Yang points out that Asian Americans' lives have been upended just like everybody else's by the COVID-19 crisis ... but everyone else isn't having to deal with daily prejudice on the streets because of it, as well.

It's totally unfair, but Andrew's not one for sulking during the pandemic ... he's about solutions.

He's been urging his fellow Asian Americans to not cower in fear, but to "do everything in our power to accelerate the end of this crisis."

Georgia's Governor apparently lives under a rock, but crawled out long enough to make a shocking statement -- that he just found out people showing no symptoms can still spread COVID-19.

No joke ... Gov. Brian Kemp, who on Wednesday finally issued a stay-at-home order for Georgia, admitted he had just learned in the last 24 hours the virus could be spread by asymptomatic people.

We should probably say he "claimed" that because it seems impossible he, or someone on his staff, could have avoided information that's been widely known and disseminated for weeks.

Clearly, Kemp hasn't been listening to Dr. Anthony Fauci during the daily White House briefings with President Trump ... with whom Kemp is reportedly pretty tight.

Safe to say, Kemp would NOT be one of the governors Pete Buttigieg is hailing for showing leadership in a time of crisis.