The e-commerce giant has designated sales channels to provide disposable masks for less than CNY 2 each.
Image credit: Igor Miske/Unsplash
On March 3, Pinduoduo (PDD:NASDAQ) announced (in Chinese) that in order to support the anti-epidemic campaign, the platform will cooperate with the sales channel designated by the Hubei epidemic prevention and control headquarters to provide masks. Pinduoduo users with delivery addresses in Hubei can purchase these masks, by accessing the mask area above the limited-time spike promotion. There are 50 masks per pack, which is priced at CNY 99 (USD 14.21).
"Due to the ongoing epidemic, the platform will work with sales channels and logistics companies to deliver goods as quickly as possible to consumers in cities and communities that can receive express delivery through special transport channels for special materials." Fu Zheng, head of Pingduoduo's anti-epidemic task force, said (in Chinese).
On March 2, Pinduoduo announced that the new batch of medical supplies donated to Hubei had all arrived in Wuhan. The donated materials include 200,000 medical masks, 4,400 sets of protective clothing, 84,000 medical gloves, 10,000 goggles, 8,500 isolation gowns, 490 temperature measuring guns.
It is not about equipment only. In February, Pinduoduo officially launched the ‘anti-epidemic agricultural products’ zone to match the increasing demand from customers and slow-selling by farmers with suitable prices. On the first day of the launch, the order volume of agricultural products exceeded 6 million.
Well-known technology companies in China are contributing to the national fight against the coronavirus as well. The country’s tech giants have set a good example too: Baidu launched an intelligent outbound platform for epidemic prevention and control, using robots to quickly check the health of people; Alibaba set up a special fund of CNY 1 billion (USD140 million) for medical supplies; Tencent invested CYN 88 million (USD 12.63 million) to support scientific research and medical care.
According to Chinanews, except for Hubei, there were no new deaths inside China on March 3, and 25 severe cases were reduced. There were no new confirmed cases in 27 provinces, and no new confirmed cases in 10 provinces for more than 10 consecutive days. Hubei still remains the most affected province with more than 20,000 patients on admission.
According to the latest WHO report, as of 10 am Central European Time on March 2, a total of 8,774 cases of new the virus-caused pneumonia were confirmed in 64 countries outside China, with a total of 128 deaths. New York has also reported the diagnosis of two new cases in the last three days.