Authorities, businesses work to deliver medical supplies

Government authorities and enterprises are working through the Chinese New Year holiday to ensure adequate supplies of masks, goggles and protective gowns.

The Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization has set up a special team led by Wu Jincheng, the commission's director, to ensure production of epidemic prevention and control products.

The team will guarantee supplies of personal protective products, medicines, medical devices and equipment as well as logistic support.

By Sunday, the team had collected more than 25 million masks ready to release to the market by requiring local companies to take out reserves.

Meanwhile, the team has asked some enterprises to start production of masks as soon as possible, while the commission will guarantee raw materials needed by these enterprises for production.

Multinational companies are also taking action to help contain the epidemic. 

To meet increased demand for personal protective products, especially medical masks, 3M is working to continue mask production during the Chinese New Year holiday. 

The company has prioritized supplies to hospitals and disease control institutions in areas with confirmed cases of the coronavirus. It is also working to replenish the inventory of 3M masks for the public as quickly as possible, which are out-of-stock at both its flagship stores on Tmall and JD. 

While demand is surging, 3M promises to keep prices stable.

It is also donating personal protective equipment — including 1,330 boxes of respirators, 80 boxes of surgical masks, as well as hand sanitizer to Wuhan — which reached the city today.

DuPont has increased manufacturing capacity inside and outside of China to support the fight against the coronavirus outbreak. It also diverted stock into China from around the world. Today, a batch of garments have arrived in Shanghai after DuPont decided to divert capacity available in Asia. And more will arrive, according to the company.

Covestro is donating 100,000 pairs of goggles to hospitals in Wuhan and surrounding areas to support medical personnel. The first 20,000 goggles were shipped to Wuhan today.

Domestic firms are also leveraging their global resources. Fosun is collecting proactive gowns and surgical masks from its subsidiaries in the UK, Germany, Japan and India.

Up to now, it has purchased more than 270,000 protective gowns and 330,000 surgical masks for delivery to China. Today, a batch of 50,000 protective gowns arrived in Shanghai, marking the first shipment of foreign aid to reach the city.

Such foreign shipments took just four days to arrive in Shanghai, thanks to expediting by Shanghai Customs and Frankfurt Airport Customs in Germany.

Donated items imported into China for epidemic prevention and control shall be exempted from duties and value-added tax, customs authorities said.