China's Suzhou donates 20,000 face masks

China's Suzhou City on Monday, gifted 20,000 face masks to the Male' City Council, as relief aid for the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

According to local media Mihaaru, Male' City Council's Maafannu South Councillor Hussain Shareef stated that the masks were donated under the 'Sister City' agreement with the Chinese city.

The agreement was signed roughly four years ago.

He further revealed that the protective equipment would be utilized by the council's frontline workers.

According to Shareef, some 200 masks are used by council workers on a a daily basis.

"Our expatriate workers, supervisors and contractors are out daily to disinfect and fog the island. The masks are used by these individuals", said Shareef.

As part of the 'Sister City' agreement held with The People's Government of Guangxi Zhuan Autonomous Region (GZAR), China, Male' City Council previously received 18,080 surgical masks, 1,500 N95 masks, 200 goggles and 100 medical suits and 50 infrared thermometers.

Till date, China has collectively donated over 200,000 disposable protective masks, 20 care beds, 10 ventilators, and upwards of 10,000 testing kits, sampling sticks, detection reagent extracting and various other forms of donation.

The donations came from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, China Merchants Port Group Co. Ltd, Alibaba Foundation, China Machinery Engineering Corporation, Beijing Urban Construction Investment and Development Co. Ltd, Dongfang Electric International Corporation, China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.

Over the last couple of months, a number of countries as well as private companies and organizations, the World Health Organization (WHO) in particular, have extended generous support to Maldives' COVID-19 response. Maldives continues to receive aid in the form of technical assistance in different sectors, arrangements to conduct testing for COVID19 across the archipelago and the procurement of various essential supplies.

Maldives now records total confirmed 1,829 and 1,334 active cases of COVID-19, with 488 recoveries and seven deaths.

The COVID-19 outbreak in capital city Malé has recorded a significant increase in COVID-19 cases following the first confirmed local transmission on April 15.

WHO has classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 6.3 million people and claimed over 377,607 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, 2.9 million people have recovered.