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The Red Cross Society of Hubei has come under fire from Chinese netizens who say the charity is sending high quality medical grade N95 filtration masks to hospitals that are not at the epicentre of the outbreak nor fever clinics in the greatest need of masks.
According to the first statistics released by the Hubei Red Cross on Thursday, the group released only 3,000 of the N95 masks to Wuhan Union Hospital, one of the hospitals most impacted by the outbreak and surge of patients.
State TV in China reported yesterday that the country’s aviation authority had approved chartered flights to bring Wuhan residents home. Today the foreign ministry confirmed that saying, charter planes would be sent to bring citizens from virus-hit Hubei province who are overseas back “as soon as possible”.
This is in view of “practical difficulties that Hubei citizens, especially those from Wuhan, have faced overseas”, said ministry of foreign affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying.