BEIJING, March 2 (Xinhua) -- China's armed forces have played a role in supporting medical and daily necessity supplies in the city of Wuhan, as part of the country's sweeping efforts to fight the novel coronavirus outbreak.
As of Sunday, 260 troops and 130 transport vehicles from the Central Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) had been tasked with transporting 8,500 tonnes of household goods and 23,600 pieces (sets) of protective materials and equipment to Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic, a military officer said at a press conference Monday.
Meanwhile, the Central Theater Command had sent helicopters to transfer 6.5 tonnes of medical supplies by Sunday, said Chen Jingyuan, head of the health bureau of the Logistic Support Department under the Central Military Commission (CMC).
Earlier, the military's joint task force for response to public health emergencies allocated 400,000 medical masks, 8,000 sets of protective clothing, 50 sets of positive pressure respiratory protective hoods and two sets of negative pressure isolation transfer cabins to Wuhan to ensure medical treatment in immediate need, Chen said.
Moreover, the PLA Air Force deployed military aircraft including Y-20s to transport about 2,850 medics from the armed forces in different batches to Wuhan, said Zhang Tianxiang, head of the transport and delivery bureau of the Logistic Support Department under the CMC.
It was the first time the Y-20, China's domestically-developed large transport aircraft, had taken part in non-war military operations since its first flight in 2013, Zhang said.
"The air force's fast maneuvering and long-range delivery capability have been tested through such large-scale emergency airlift missions involving large and medium-sized aircraft in service," Zhang said.