BEIJING, Feb. 5 -- The Ministry of Emergency Management and two other government departments have sent 20,000 disaster relief supply items, including cotton-padded quilts, to central China's Hunan Province, the ministry said on Monday.

The ministry upgraded the emergency response for disasters induced by low temperatures, rain, snow and freezing conditions in Hunan from level-IV to level-III on Sunday.

The ministry also activated a level-IV emergency response for the same reasons in east China's Jiangxi Province on Sunday, while it maintained the level-III emergency responses in Anhui and Hubei, as well as the level-IV emergency responses in Hebei, Shanxi, Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, Chongqing, Guizhou and Shaanxi.