Background of COVID-19 Pandemic Response On 27 January 2020, CREST received an invitation from our Chinese partners, Hubei Province Charity Federation and Wuhan City Province Charity Federation to urgently provide specific medical supplies to hospitals in Wuhan. After evaluating the situation of the outbreak by the Board of Directors, CREST decided to respond to the request by liaising with Hubei Province Charity Federation. The required supplies are as follow:
N95 mask: recommended 3M 1860/1870/1805
Goggles: cover the entire face
Disposable medical gloves
Medical caps
Shockproof eye mask
Protective clothing: 3M 4565
Surgical mask YY 0469-2010
Medical protective mask GB 19083-2010
** All Product Must Provide
manufacturing license agreement (MLA)
registration certificate for medical device
report for detecting and analysing / test report
Wuhan is a city in Hubei province and currently, a total of 44 government hospitals in Hubei are handling the epidemic. CREST will deliver the medical supplies to Hubei Charity Federation (湖北省慈善总会), an authorised NGO responsible for coordinating and distributing medical supplies to Wuhan Charity Federation (武汉市慈善总会) which will later re-distribute to the four hospitals as below:
武汉市金银潭医院
武汉大学中南医院
武汉市第四医院
华中科技大学协和医院
The Chinese government highly encourages donations-in-kind as supplies are depleting across the country. Three main reasons for acute shortages:
Chinese New Year holiday – The medical supplies manufacturer was shorthanded as workers returned to their hometowns for the Chinese New Year celebration. To enable the manufacturer to resume production, the whole supply chain must be activated starting from the sourcing of raw materials to delivery.
Travel ban imposed - To reduce the possibility of viral transmission through public events, citizens were instructed to remain at home. Many villages were locked down and people were not allowed to leave their villages. Workers were not able to return to work and hence the manufacturing sector was disrupted in Hubei Province.
Strict QC requirement for masks – According to the press statement released on 27 January 2020, China produces 17,300,000 masks per day. Due to the strict health standards, all masks must be examined for quality control for 14 days before they can be released to the distributors. Even when the production of masks resumes, it will take at least 14 days before the masks can be distributed.
The four phases of CREST response are:
Source suppliers, purchase & receive supplies from donors
Consolidate supplies at warehouse, stock count, documentation for Malaysia custom and transport manifest.
Send all supplies to KLIA
Air freight to China’s destination
Timeline An appeal for Donation was launched via various channels with following contents:- 27 January - Appeal via CREST’s Facebook, Whatapps and Email. "The first shipment of supplies is estimated to be delivered to China via air freight on 7 February 2020. While there is no commitment to send a second shipment at this moment, CREST will monitor the situation to determine the need for subsequent shipments. CREST understands that the shortage of medical supplies in China is a temporary situation. The supply chain will progressively improve once the workers resumed work (estimated in a month). Besides securing supplies for masks, CREST is assisting to obtain the entire range of medical Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) if possible. CREST intends to use the funds received to purchase medical supplies in Malaysia. Items purchased will be packed together with donated supplies and sent to China. CREST has engaged an international freight forwarder and the shipment is estimated to depart on 7 February 2020 to one of these cities: Zhengzhou, Changsha, Shanghai and Beijing. The shipment will most likely be sent to Shanghai. Upon arrival at the local airport, the local freight forwarder will apply for customs clearance with tax-free status (green line). After which, the supplies will be transported to the targeted beneficiaries by government-authorised bodies. Local CREST volunteers will be stationed at Shanghai for accountability and to monitor the cargo flow. The team will be led by:
Mr Wang Baosheng 王宝生 | Mobile: 13636535185
中国爱德基金会上海方舟关怀中心负责人
方舟之家项目督导
华东师范大学汉语言文学本科，国家二级心理咨询师
主要关注癌症儿童关怀、临终关怀、救援备灾领域
28 January - A response team consisting of CREST staff and volunteers was formed. The team is responsible for the management of the Wuhan Response: Procurement, Logistics, Admin & Account and Public Relations. 29 January - Sin Chew Daily newspaper. The procurement team was activated to source for a reliable supplier within Malaysia. 31 January - Received approximately RM14,000 cash donations. Of which, RM12,000 was used to purchase coveralls. Apart from the masks and gloves, coverall is also one of the supplies that are in acute shortage. The majority of the medical personnel do not remove their coveralls once they put them on because they have to replace it with a new one once it is taken off. For donations-in-kind, we have received:
Disposable shoe covers= 4000pcs
Nitrile powder free Quebee gloves (s) = 900pcs
Nitrile powder free Quebee gloves (L) = 600pcs
Nitrile powder free Quebee gloves (XL) = 1700pcs
3 February - Issued purchase order and made payment to the suppliers. At the same time, logistics and delivery were arranged. The majority of our stocks required volunteers to collect from the different locations (Selangor, Terrengganu and Johor). CREST has received approximately RM19,000 cash donations. Orders have been placed to obtain the following items:-
1,000 sets of Coverall - RM 20,400
200 pairs of Protection Boots - RM 2,400
572 pieces of 3M Goggles 1623AF - RM 16,200
Total Commitment: RM 39,000
Donations-in-kind:
3,200 pieces of Quebee Nitrile Gloves
4,000 pieces of Shoe Covers
4 February - CREST has ceased to accept donations-in-kind as the final list of cargo manifest has been submitted to China for documentation and approval.
5 February - Received 武汉第九医院 documentation and approval for our shipment. Currently negotiating with a few transporters and airlines in order to send the cargo ASAP at the right cost. Unfortunately, there were some changes related to China's customs regulation in Shanghai, hence, the whole application process was restarted and the shipment was delayed by a week. The estimated new shipment date is on 10 February 2020.
6 February - The response team placed stickers with hand-written motivation words on the boxes in hopes to encourage the frontline medical personnel to persist in fighting against the Wuhan virus. These items will be shipped to Shanghai and channeled to the respective hospitals by our appointed and authorised local partners.
7 February - All stocks were received at the staging warehouse in Kepong. The final packing list, proforma invoice and the deed of donation have been forwarded to Shanghai and the local logistics partner for customs clearance and airline booking.
8 February - Sekolah Relawan has sent 2 representatives to purchase humanitarian aids for our Wuhan projects. Despite the high cost of a 3M N95 mask (which is about RM35 per mask in Indonesia), they delivered 560 pieces of N95 masks, 300 pieces of surgical masks, 94 sets of TYVEK protective clothing and 204 pieces of reusable MASKIT masks. CREST honors this partnership and will deliver these items to China in our second shipment. Our first shipment estimated arrive in Shanghai on 11 February 2020. After the local customs clearance, it will be sent to Wuhan by road via China Post (中国邮政).
10 February - Today 1230PM, our supplies are loaded into lorry and on its way to Wuhan.
11 February - Our response team volunteers did a final inspection at KLIA cargo terminal this morning before the supplies are to be air freighted to Shanghai tomorrow. An officer from logistic company took the opportunity to wrote few motivation messages on the box stickers to encourage the frontline medical personnels. We pray that our supplies will safely arrive at the destination and soon will channel to the frontline.
15 February - Our first shipment has departed from KLIA yesterday at 4.10pm via Shanghai Airline FM886. The shipment was delay due to cargo space to China is congested. We give our thank to our logistics partners Mr James Ku and his team, for their dedication and constantly follow up on the status. Shipment has arrived at 9:30pm at Pudong International Airport, Shanghai. The ground crews are unloading the cargo under rains. Partners in Shanghai have alerted about this arrival and we wish we may clear custom today.
24 February - Finally, our first shipment has cleared immigration, custom and local health department at Shanghai. Indeed it is a long process due to congestion at the China's custom department. The local authorities are working 24x7 to clear international cargos arrival at the airport. All items cleared without tax and any additional charges. We thank our Shanghai local partner Mr. Kimi’s efforts.
25 February - All items have delivered to Red Cross Shanghai's warehouse, local transport has arranged to Wuhan, Hubei on tomorrow.
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