China said Monday it “urgently needs” protective medical equipment as the death toll in the country from a highly contagious coronavirus passed that of the 2002 SARS crisis, with more than 17,000 infected.
China has received aid from 12 countries and UNICEF to combat the novel Coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese foreign ministry said on February 3. Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, and Iran, along with South Korea, Japan, the UK, France, Belarus and Hungary donated epidemic prevention and control supplies
The Chinese foreign ministry expressed gratitude for the assistance and noted that above all China currently needs medication, protective suits, goggles and masks.
Fears of the virus have spurred people in the densely-populated country of 1.4 billion to stock up on single-use surgical masks, while front-line medical personnel at the center of the outbreak have reported equipment shortages.
“What China urgently needs at present are medical masks, protective suits, and safety goggles,” the foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a press briefing.
Meanwhile The United States is accused of taking actions that create and spread fear following a Coronavirus outbreak in China, instead of offering significant aid, concluded the Chinese foreign ministry on Monday
The United States was the first nation to suggest partial withdrawal of its embassy staff, and the first to impose a ban on Chinese travellers, said ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
Earlier The US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, said in an interview on Thursday that the coronavirus outbreak could bring back jobs to America.
In China, 361 people have died with more than 17,000 infected from the virus, which originated in the central city of Wuhan. At least another 171 cases have been reported in more than two dozen other countries and regions, from the United States to Japan.
