Manufacturers ramping up production
Medical output at full capacity to help fight COVID-19 pandemic
With confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on the rise outside China, companies in Beijing are increasing production to meet growing demand for medical supplies.
Beijing Siriusmed Medical Device, a medical equipment manufacturer, sent 20 ventilators to Slovenia on March 20, to aid the southeastern European nation in its fight against COVID-19.
Since the outbreak of the virus, Siriusmed has received inquiries about its ventilators from embassies of Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada and Morocco, Beijing Business Today quoted the company’s CEO Li Jinghui as saying.
After receiving orders of nearly 1,000 ventilators, workers are busy with production, preparing for deliveries, Li told the newspaper.
Beijing Aeonmed, an anesthesia and respiratory medical equipment enterprise, has provided hundreds of ventilators to foreign users since the outbreak, with further deliveries scheduled for thousands of overseas orders, Beijing Evening News reported.
Aeonmed is one of the top five Chinese ventilator brands, according to a report by market research consultancy Wismar.
The two companies are among the high-tech businesses in Beijing that are gaining mounting overseas orders, contributing to the fight against the pandemic.
In the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing ETown, alone, new virus detection solutions provided by local companies had been certified by late March. That meant their virus testing systems can live up to market access standards and are well prepared for export to highrisk virus-hit countries and regions,
Beijing Business Today reported.
In addition to medical equipment manufacturers, companies from other trades are also leveraging their resources to meet the rapidly growing demand for medical products and services.
StarTimes Group headquartered in Beijing is a major digital TV provider in Africa, yet it is making a quick foray into the medical field.
In cooperation with the Institute for Artificial Intelligence at Tsinghua University and the university’s School of Clinical Medicine, the company launched a COVID-19 selfassessment system in Africa on March 27.
Aimed at providing African people with useful tips on how to protect themselves from the disease, the system provides multi-language services, covering Chinese, English, French, Portuguese and Swahili. It can be accessed on the StarTimes ON app.
Data from the Africa Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention show that 10,789 confirmed COVID19 cases had been reported across the continent by April 8, Xinhua News Agency reported.
At a news conference in late March, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of Beijing’s center for disease prevention and control, briefed media representatives on two global online medical service platforms designed to help check the pandemic.
One was launched by internet giant Baidu, where more than 10,000 doctors offer online services, including medical consultancy, psychological consultation and livestreams of medical experts’ lectures and advice.
The other, launched by e-commerce company JD, features services by experienced medical workers, including a group of more than 30 experts in traditional Chinese medicine and some 20 bilingual medics.
As business operations are racing against time to provide medical supplies in need, local governments are lending a helping hand.
Li Kai, assistant to the chairman of Aeonmed, told Beijing Evening News that Beijing Customs has set up a green channel for customs clearance of key component imports such as sensors, which are crucial to advanced medical equipment manufacture.
Market regulators have helped to coordinate supplies of core parts for ventilator production. Nearly 50 component makers have resumed operation, with the aid of local governments, Li added.
Government agencies in Beijing have streamlined their administrative procedures to facilitate export of medical supplies, Beijing Evening News reported.
“Our factories are running at full capacity,” Li said. “Amid the pandemic, we are going all out to increase our production, contributing our part to the global fight against the disease.”