MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. China’s Heilongjiang Province has provided Moscow with over 20 tonnes of supplies for combating the coronavirus, Moscow’s Department for External Economic and International Relations said in a statement on Tuesday.

"A total of 23 tonnes of humanitarian supplies to combat the COVID-19 outbreak have been delivered to Moscow from China. The humanitarian aid was donated by the Heilongjiang Province. China has provided Moscow with more than 220,000 medical masks, over 100,000 gloves, 2,500 single-use protective suits, 5,000 coronavirus testing systems, more than 200 thermal imagers and other items for combating the coronavirus infection," the statement reads.

The equipment and protective suits, which have been handed over to Moscow’s Healthcare Department, will be distributed among the city’s medical facilities. On Monday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin held a meeting with a delegation of Chinese medical experts who will share their experience in combating the virus with Moscow health workers.

Cooperation with Chinese doctors may help Moscow prevent the situation from worsening, and China’s aid is also a symbol of friendship between the two countries, head of the Department for External Economic and International Relations Sergei Cheremin said.

In early February, Russia sent 23 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Coronavirus pandemic

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 1,900,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 119,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 453,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, a total of 21,102 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 1,694 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 170 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.