Global Shortage Of Anti-Coronavirus Masks, Warns WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

The world is running out of masks and other protective equipment against the novel coronavirus, the World Health Organization chief warned on Friday. “The world is facing a chronic shortage of personal protective equipment,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the WHO's executive board in Geneva.

On Friday, Nepal gifted 100,000 protective masks to China. The decision to gift the masks came in the backdrop of its shortage in China. Foreign Minister Pradip Kumar Gyawali and Health Minister Bhanubakta Dhakal handed over the masks to China's ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi at an event here.

A high-level meeting of the Nepal government on Thursday decided to dispatch one lakh protective masks to China.

Speaking on the occasion, Chinese ambassador Hou thanked the Nepal government and the international community for their contribution to contain coronavirus.

"This kind of support and unity has provided China and its citizens with the much needed willpower to battle it," she remarked.

As of Thursday, 636 people have died mostly in Hubei province and its provincial capital Wuhan due to the virus with the total number of confirmed cases jumping to 3,143, Chinese officials announced on Friday.