BEIJING — China has imported 290 million yuan (about $41.8 million) worth of medical supplies in a single week to ease domestic shortages amid efforts to contain the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak, customs data showed on Jan 31.

In the week ending Jan 30, China imported some 59.18 million items of medical supplies including more than 56 million face masks, 69,000 pairs of goggles and 738,000 protective suits, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said.

Other imported items included some 36,000 disinfectant products and 95,000 medical devices, it said.

On Jan 30 alone, medical supplies worth 190 million yuan were imported into the Chinese market, according to the GAC.

Amid the import surge, Chinese companies are actively getting involved in China's global procurement of medical supplies to aid efforts against the novel coronavirus outbreak.

For instance, Shanghai-based conglomerate Fosun Group and Chinese tech firm Tencent together bought about 45,000 medical protective suits from the United Kingdom and Japan, which arrived in the virus-hit central Chinese city of Wuhan late on Jan 30.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has also set up a special fund of 1 billion yuan for the procurement of global medical supplies and is in contact with 42 overseas face mask suppliers.

Chinese customs have provided fast-track clearance at customs for inbound materials that will be used in the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has also said it will do its best to encourage domestic enterprises to resume production of the medical materials in need while expanding global procurement to alleviate domestic shortages.