BEIJING — Customs authorities across China have stepped up customs clearance for epidemic prevention materials from overseas amid the fight against the novel coronavirus.

A customs office in the city of Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, said from Jan 24 to 29, more than 10,000 postal parcels of epidemic control materials enjoyed fast customs clearance.

To speed up clearance services for imported materials, the customs office opened special channels, gave priority to the customs clearance for medical supplies, and added staff to ensure that the materials can be handled in time.

Customs of Kunming, Yunnan province, said several batches of medical materials from Myanmar, including millions of disposable medical masks, gloves, disinfectant and infrared thermometers, have been cleared by the customs in the past few days.

Kunming customs also joined hands with airports and airlines, and customs officers worked around the clock to facilitate the customs clearance procedures of the materials.

Hefei Xinqiao International Airport, in Eastern China's Anhui province, said they worked with local customs to give the green light to a flight from Thailand loaded with 170,000 medical masks, taking only 90 minutes from the landing of the flight to the completion of the customs inspection.

Northwestern Gansu province's Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport said that two batches of 122,000 surgical masks airlifted from Vietnam have been quickly cleared by the customs. The masks are donated by a tour guide group of Gansu and some overseas Chinese societies.

Shanghai customs said a batch of epidemic relief supplies donated by UNICEF were quickly cleared at Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Beijing customs have set up fast-tracks for imported relief supplies including medicine, disinfectant, protective equipment, medical devices and other epidemic prevention and control materials, at airports and customs offices.

Chinese health authorities announced on Jan 30 that the novel coronavirus had claimed 259 lives by the end of the day, with 11,791 confirmed cases nationwide.