SAPPORO -- The Sapporo municipal government said Wednesday it has received 25,000 masks for medical purposes from Shenyang, in northeastern China, a friendship city with the Hokkaido capital.
Amid the new coronavirus currently hitting Hokkaido worse than anywhere else in Japan, the municipal government plans to distribute the masks to 14 medical institutions in the city in which patients infected with the virus are being hospitalized or that are treating such people.
About 30 cardboard boxes containing 20,000 surgical masks and 5,000 high-end N95 respirators were delivered to a public health center in Sapporo, according to the city.
Last month, the Sapporo municipal government sent to Shenyang 500 sets of protective clothing it had stockpiled, at the request of the Chinese city.
The masks were delivered at the request of Sapporo, after Shenyang expressed its willingness to provide what the Hokkaido city needed as a token of gratitude for its assistance.
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