China expands medical supply output, export

BEIJING -- China is expanding exports of medical supplies to help with the global fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic with rising production capacity basically meeting domestic demand, officials said Wednesday.

As of Sunday, the daily production capacity of medical protective suits had topped 1.5 million, with that of N95 face masks over 3.4 million, Cao Xuejun, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), told a press conference.

The output of protective suits and medical face masks stood at over 842,000 and 1.8 million respectively by mid-March, earlier data showed.

Major enterprises tracked by the ministry can produce 290,000 protective goggles and face coverings and over 410,000 infrared thermometers daily, said Cao.

Chinese companies have provided 18,000 ventilators to other countries, among which more than 4,000 were invasive ventilators, according to Cao.

China's weekly production capacity of invasive ventilators, one of the most sought-after medical devices amid the epidemic, stood at around 2,200 units given sufficient supply of key parts, less than one-fifth of global capacity, said Chen Kelong, another MIIT official.

Challenges remain for Chinese companies to significantly boost ventilator output both for now and in the long-run due to supply chain disruptions from the epidemic, said Chen.

China had exported 3.86 billion face masks, 37.52 million protective suits, 2.41 million infrared thermometers as of Saturday from March 1.