Customs fast-tracks essential goods to fight virus

Shenzhen Customs is making every effort to ensure speedy clearance of medical apparatuses and equipment for the fight against the novel coronavirus.

It has established special service windows and green channels for these items, operating around the clock.

On Tuesday, 32,551 temperature-measuring chips, which were purchased by Wuhan from overseas and are intended to be used for infrared body temperature monitoring in the city, finished clearance in a few minutes through the green channel.

A total of 7,000 N95 masks donated by Hong Kong entrepreneurs passed through the green channel on the same day. Soon after that, badly needed masks were sent to Hubei and Zhejiang provinces.

Also on Tuesday, Shenzhen Customs quickly gave the green light to another batch of anti-epidemic materials, including nearly 90,000 masks, more than 40 pairs of goggles and over 50 pairs of gloves from Incheon, Republic of Korea. These materials were transported to the front line of the battle with the virus soon afterward.

On Wednesday, at the call of the Red Cross Society of China Shenzhen Branch, customs expedited the clearance of 22 air purifiers donated from overseas charities through the green channels.

By Wednesday at noon, all air purifiers were cleared by customs and were immediately sent to the Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen and Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, two key hospitals earmarked to treat people infected with the virus in the city, where 86 infection cases have been confirmed as of Wednesday.