Hubei receives donated protective materials

The Hubei provincial Red Cross, the Hubei Charity federation and the Hubei Youth Development Foundation have received a total of 6,154,300 pieces of badly needed protective materials by Thursday noon, Wang Qiyang, the director of the department of economy and information technology of Hubei said on Thursday night.

The materials include 26,600 medical protective suits, 479,000 N95 masks, 1,728,700 disposable surgical masks and 39,300 goggles.

The materials have been delivered to hospitals and institutes and regions in accordance with the wishes of the donors, said Wang at a press conference in Wuhan, the outbreak center of the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Major medical materials like masks and protective suites are still needed and the government has widened channels to ensure supply, including asking for national support, accepting donations and encouraging companies in the province to resume production of the materials.

"The goods and materials arriving Wuhan must be allocated within two hours, and then the logistics enterprises will start the delivery. We also track the material down to hospitals and confirm how much material the hospitals have accepted," said Cao Guangjing, vice governor of Hubei.

Part of companies in Hubei have resumed the production to narrow the gap, including there are two manufacturers of protective suits, one manufacturer of N95 mask, and over 10 manufacturers of medical protective equipment are producing at full capacity, said Cao.

The provincial government has allocated $122.2 million fiscal fund directly access to the enterprises and guarantee the enterprises' supply of water and power and other necessary raw materials, Cao said.

No standard of what occasions and which positions in the hospital need the high-level protective materials is another reason of causing the shortage, as everyone in the hospital wants to be equipped with a high-level protective materials, Cao said.

A practical guideline of the allocation and the use of medical protective equipment in the prevention and control of the epidemic has been carried out to ensure the materials are properly used.