Government works to increase access to medical supplies

China is working hard to increase medical supplies and daily necessities and is calling on more companies to return to full production after the holiday as part of its broader drive to fight the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak.

The country announced on Sunday it has enacted a State procurement, collection and storage policy for urgently needed medical supplies.

According to a notice released by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the country will help solve practical difficulties such as funding and production sites to encourage related enterprises to speed up production.

The first group of medical products purchased and stored by the government include medical protective clothing, N95 medical masks, surgical masks, medical disposable masks, medical goggles and detection reagents, the notice said.

Chen Da, deputy director of the Department of Trade at the National Development and Reform Commission, said except for Hubei province, the epicenter of the NCP outbreak, the rest of the Chinese mainland has already resumed production.

As of Friday, production capacity of masks in China had been restored to 73 percent of the normal level, and those producing medical masks had reached 87 percent. Additionally, 94.6 percent of food production and processing enterprises in China have restored production, Chen said on Sunday at a news conference in Beijing.

"In the next step, the NDRC will work with relevant departments to ensure the supply of raw materials and accessories to resume production, promote an orderly return of employees to their duties, keep the transportation of finished products unimpeded and protect the safety of those who return to work," Chen said.

To shore up the domestic supply of daily necessities and urgently needed goods to deal with the outbreak, the Ministry of Commerce has advised areas less affected by the epidemic to expand various forms of businesses, including on-and offline businesses.

"We must step away from the one-size-fits-all model," said Wang Bin, deputy director of the ministry's Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion. "In areas hit badly by the epidemic, we should focus on restoring production of daily necessities and increase supply channels. While in areas less affected by the epidemic, we need to further develop more forms of businesses."

So far, 95 percent of large supermarkets have resumed normal operation, and 35 percent of large department stores and shopping malls have resumed business, Wang said.

Health authorities announced that 33,738 cases of NCP had been confirmed on the Chinese mainland by the end of Saturday, with 811 deaths.

Experts said the economic impact on China hinges on the ability of the government to contain the virus and its measures to mitigate the impact, saying they don't expect the epidemic to cause any permanent damage to the Chinese economy.

"Despite the temporary impact on the Chinese economy, the outbreak won't affect the economy's mid-to long-term fundamentals," said Tang Jianwei, chief researcher at the Financial Research Center of the Bank of Communications.

According to Tang, if the outbreak comes gradually under control in the first quarter, the Chinese economy would likely show signs of rebounding in the second quarter.

"Particularly, the government needs to further adopt a series of measures to support those hit badly by the epidemic, including small and medium-sized enterprises, single-owner-run businesses and migrant workers, to maintain social stability." Tang added.