The European Union will provide protective equipment such as gloves and masks to China, the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management said today.
Speaking to journalists in the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC), Janez Lenarcic added that France and Germany had already sent 12 tonnes of equipment to China to help fight against a spreading coronavirus epidemic and that the EU was assessing what more its member states could offer.
The World Health Organization last week said the world was facing a chronic shortage of gowns, masks, gloves and other protective equipment in the fight against the virus.
President Xi Jinping, who has largely kept out of the spotlight, leaving Premier Li Keqiang to take the public lead in government efforts to control the outbreak, reiterated on Monday that China would beat the virus.
The death toll from the outbreak by this morning accounted for by the ERCC shows the virus has claimed 910 lives.