Shenzhen's donation arrives in Czech Republic

The first batch of 150,000 novel coronavirus rapid testing kits made in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, arrived in the Czech Republic on Wednesday.

The country had sent seven planes to transport medical materials from China.

"I would therefore like to thank the People's Republic of China, which is the only country that has helped us get these supplies," Czech President Milos Zeman said in an address to the nation on Thursday.

As of Thursday, Shenzhen has donated more than 300,000 surgical masks and thousands of testing kits to its eight sister cities, including Milan and Turin, Italy; Gwangyang, Incheon and Busan, South Korea; Osaka and Tsukuba, Japan; and Bern, Switzerland.

The city plans to continue donating medical supplies that are urgently needed, such as surgical masks, protective clothing, disposable disinfectant and other materials, to all of its 16 sister cities, including those in Spain, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Argentina.

Shenzhen has released a list of anti-epidemic material manufacturers in the city, and provided convenient channels for the procurement for its sister cities.

Sun Huaizhong, deputy director of the Shenzhen Municipal Foreign Affairs Office, said that the city plans to organize video conferences between its medical experts and their counterparts in the sister cities on topics related to epidemic prevention and control, diagnosis and treatment.

"Prevention and control not only require medical supplies but also information exchanges on treatment experience," Sun said.