Hastings councillor sources 100,000 face masks for Chinese city amid coronavirus fears

A Hastings councillor has helped source 100,000 facemasks for a Chinese city in desperate need as the coronavirus continues to spread.

The Hastings District Council has had a long standing relationship with many cities in China through tourism projects including Mianyang, the province of Sichuan’s second largest city.

Home to over 4 million people, Mianyang is considered a “friendship city”, one below the status of "sister city”.

The cities' two governments have been in close contact during the China-Hastings Year of Tourism project, aimed at increasing awareness and growing the relationship between New Zealand and the global giant.  

Project director and Hastings Councillor Kevin Watkins reached out to cities in China as the coronavirus grips the nation, offering sympathy and any support they needed.

Foreign Affairs officials in Mianyang took up that offer, desperately asking if the council could somehow source facemasks for the city, as stocks have run out with locals doing everything they can to avoid catching the highly infectious virus.

State Chinese media reported yesterday that Sichuan has reported its first death from the virus, with over 100 cases in the province.

Through dozens of messages across Chinese message service WeChat and collaborating with former Wellingtonian Leslie Chu, now contracting for the council’s tourism projects in China, they’ve managed to source 100,000 facemasks out of India.

Watkins told 1 NEWS he wanted to show Mianyang that Hastings “cared’ for their counterpart.

“We know what a health crisis is,” he says, alluding to the Havelock North water crisis three years ago.

The campylobacter outbreak in the town water supply, which floored over 5000 residents of the Hastings suburb with gastro illness, has been linked to the deaths of at least four people.

The challenge now becomes transporting the in-demand supplies to the district, with transport in and out of China hard to come by.

Mr Watkins says they’ve reached out to airlines that are currently still flying to China and transporting medical supplies. The city is currently waiting for their response.