A couple in Shanghai’s Minhang District have donated 300,000 face masks to hospitals around the country.

Zhou Chao'en, general manager of Shanghai Energy Information Technology Co, said he and his wife had ordered masks after some employees had said it was difficult to buy masks due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The couple then decided to purchase a batch for Wuhan, epicenter of the epidemic.

They contacted several factories only to find they had suspended operations due to the Spring Festival. However, administrators at the Xinzhuang Industrial Park, the site of Zhou’s company, helped him contact a factory in Jinshan District on January 22. The factory manager had been hesitating over whether to retain workers during the Spring Festival as there had been no orders.

Zhou immediately ordered 300,000 masks, and the factory began production on January 24.

The couple got in touch with the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and on January 25, the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the first batch of 80,000 masks was delivered.

“The Wuhan doctors then introduced us to doctors in other cities in Hubei, such as Jingmen, Huanggang and Xiangyang, and also in other provinces, including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shaanxi and Liaoning,” said Zhou. “So we also sent masks there. At first we sent tens of thousands to one hospital, then 10,000 each and eventually 2,000 to supply as many hospitals as possible.”

The couple also donated 10,000 masks each to Central Hospital of Minhang District and Shanghai Fifth People’s Hospital. When they heard that inspectors at expressway check stations also lacked masks, they donated 2,000 to local transport authorities.

They worked till 1am every day to ensure that all the masks were delivered to hospitals in need.

“I decided to donate to Wuhan hospitals first because I think only when Wuhan is safe, the whole country is safe. And also, only when doctors are safe, we are safe,” Zhou said.

“As a Chinese citizen, I felt obliged to do my part for the country at this difficult time,” he added. "I also would like to thank all the people who have helped us. The factory manager sold the masks at cost when he got to know that we purchased them to donate to hospitals; some warm-hearted people had gone to the factory as volunteers to help production; some friends from Wuhan University alumni association and other people all offered help for us during communication and transport. I would like to say thanks to all of them.”