Donations pour into Wuhan Red Cross

The Wuhan Branch of the Red Cross Society of China in Hubei province, center of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, has received a donation of more than 600 million yuan ($86.5 million) and 27 batches of donated supplies from the public as of Thursday, Li Qiang, a senior official of the Wuhan government, said on Friday night.

Li told a daily news conference on the Wuhan epidemic prevention and control that the donated materials include 9,316 masks, 74,522 medical protective suits, 80,456 goggles and some medicines and medical facilities.

All the donations are being coordinated by the city's epidemic command center and then allocated to hospitals and medical institutes in line with their demands, he said.

By noon Friday, the Wuhan Charity Federation has also received a donation of about 2.59 billion yuan from the public, of which 842 million yuan that donors did not specify their targets have been used, Li said.

If donors specify the donation targets, "we'll ensure the donated money can be given to the designated beneficiaries," he said.

He also said they will improve the transparency of the donation-related information and speed up the transfer of the donated supplies.

As being asked why hospitals are still thirsty for supplies after the city's Red Cross received lots of donated materials, Li said there are various reasons for the shortage.

"One reason is that the consumption of hospitals was greater than the supply, and the other is that the donated materials didn't coincide with the urgent demand items of the hospitals," he said. "Meanwhile, the transferring and allocation of the donated supplies were also not fast and timely enough."

Ma Guoqiang, Party chief of Wuhan, also responded the donation-related issues while being interviewed by China Central Television on Friday night. He ordered the charity institutions to disclose the reception and allocation information to the public every three days.