Lorries carrying anti-pandemic medical supplies worth 490,000 yuan ($77,069), a moveable temporary test center and a negative pressure ambulance departed from Luohu on Feb. 8, heading to Longlin and Xilin counties of Baise city, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

This is the first batch of medical materials Luohu donated to the two counties since the latest resurgence of COVID-19 in Baise.

Longlin and Xilin are the two counties that Luohu had been earmarked to help with their poverty alleviation work before last year.

Some of the supplies are standard nucleic acid sampling boxes, each containing 300 virus sampling tubes, 3,000 nasopharyngeal swabs, gloves, disinfectants, masks, and protective clothing.

These are what the two counties badly need for the time being as a large-scale nucleic acid test is being carried out.

Zhao Jinsong from the office of the leading group of Luohu’s partner assistance work, said that in the face of the resurgence of the virus, the two counties are short of medical supplies. Xilin county, in particular, has no nucleic acid testing equipment.

Luohu has not wasted any time preparing the materials for the two counties. As a result, the two counties can dramatically improve their testing capacity from about 300 tests a day to 15,000. That means the donations from Luohu can help the two counties test all their residents within one day.

Some enterprises and residents in Luohu also donated 100,000 facemasks to the two counties.

Furthermore, Luohu sent a medical team of seven people to the two counties on Feb. 9. This is the ninth batch of medical staff Luohu has sent to the two counties since the first outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hu Bo, leader of the medical team, said, “We have experienced several outbreaks of the pandemic in Luohu, and have certain experience. Therefore, in terms of materials and personnel allocation and working procedures, we can provide guidance to help them combat the outbreak quickly and effectively.”

Zhao added that the first batch of supplies from Luohu would be used to address emergency needs, and in the future, Luohu would provide more support to the two counties according to their practical needs. The district will help the two counties improve their public health infrastructure and train medical staff to enhance their capacity to deal with the epidemic.