Face masks are delivered from Nantong to Changwon, South Korea and Siena, Italy by COSCO Shipping Logistics (Nantong) on March 20. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

A total of 60,000 face masks were delivered on March 20 from Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, to its sister cities Changwon, South Korea and Siena, Italy, to help locals in their fight against the COVID-19 outbreak.

Two batches of medical masks, 40,000 for Changwon and 20,000 for Siena, are expected to arrive at their destinations on March 22 and 24, respectively. 

"Many of Nantong's international sister cities helped us when we were short of essential supplies during the outbreak. Now it's time to pay them back," said Wang Pujian, director of the city's foreign affairs office.

According to Wang, Changwon established sister-city ties with Nantong in December 2015 and donated 2,000 KF94 masks to the city earlier this year. Siena only partnered with Nantong this January, but the two cities carried out frequent non-government exchanges in the past.

Before this, a number of Nantong companies and county-level governments had already donated essential supplies to several countries severely hit by the pandemic.

The government of Tongzhou district sent 10,000 face masks to Hakui, Japan. The Hai’an Economic Development Zone donated 30,000 masks to Mantova province, Italy. Jinghua Pharmaceutical Group Co donated 300,000 pills of chloroquine phosphate and 24,000 doses of Wangshi Baochiwan to Iran. The Nantong hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine donated more than 6,000 essential supplies to Siena University hospital. 

Rugao-based memory-foam producer Mlily also announced on March 16 that it will donate 1,000 protective suits and 50,000 face masks to Serbia.