Central SOEs go all-out in fight against epidemic
China Daily
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Workers unload medical materials from a plane at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, on Jan 28, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

Centrally-administered State-owned enterprises are playing vital roles in the fight against the novel coronavirus across the country.

Hospital constructed in 10 days

Huoshenshan Hospital, with an area of 33,900 square meters and a capacity of 1,000 beds, was built in 10 days and officially began treating infected patients on Tuesday morning.

According to Securities Daily, the hospital was mainly constructed by China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China State Construction. Over 4,000 workers and nearly a thousand pieces of large machinery, equipment and vehicles were dispatched to fulfill the job.

China Mobile, China Telecom and China Tower provided Huoshenshan Hospital with communication facilities and expertise.

China Telecom told Securities Daily it had completed the all-around information system construction for Huoshenshan Hospital, including fixed-line telephones, fiber optics, medical clouds and remote consultation facilities with 4G and 5G network coverage.

Public services offered smoothly

China's three major telecom operators - China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile - all ensured services will not be shut down because of phone bill arrears, guaranteed normal communication for frontline medical staff and gave full support to governments in sending messages to the public about the epidemic.

Power suppliers State Grid Corporation of China and China Southern Power Grid noted power would not be cut off due to electricity charge arrears during the outbreak, and China Resources Gas has taken multiple measures to ensure gas supply for Hubei, the virus' epicenter.

Medical goods purchased overseas

Faced with the medical goods shortage in Hubei, centrally-administrated SOEs and their overseas branches purchased masks, protective clothing, goggles and other supplies from foreign countries and shipped them back via various means of transportation, in support of the fight against the novel coronavirus.

According to China's top State assets regulator, as of 10 am on Feb 2, central SOEs had purchased over 6.27 million facial masks, 184,500 pieces of protective clothing, 511,000 medical gloves and two tons of medical supplies, sending them to frontline staff to defeat the epidemic.