China meets demand for medical supplies through production ramp-up

China is able to serve domestic demand for medical protective goods, as it is calling on medical companies to return to full production to fight the novel coronavirus outbreak, the country's top industrial regulator said on Wednesday.

Cao Xuejun, deputy director of the consumer products industry department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said the country has seen a significant surge in supplies of key medical products such as face masks, protective suits, goggles and infrared thermometers during recent days, and it is now able to satisfy the domestic need for those medical goods.

As of Sunday, the daily production of disposable medical protective clothing exceeded 1.5 million sets, and the daily output of N95 masks was well over 3.4 million units, according to the MIIT. Daily output of goggles, automatic infrared thermometers and handheld infrared thermometers reached 290,000, 10,000 and 400,000 units respectively. 

In the next step, the MIIT will make a big push to guide local companies to optimize their structures and improve quality to serve both domestic and overseas demand for medical protective products, Cao added.