1 million medical protective masks with a total cost of 200 thousand US dollars were purchased by China in Turkmenistan, reports Turkmenistan.ru with reference to the State commodity exchange.

"Three-layer disposable masks (with a retainer) were produced at the enterprises of the Ministry of health and medical industry of Turkmenistan," the information says.

As reported by foreign media, China lacks protective masks in connection with the outbreak of coronavirus in this country. The world health organization recognized the outbreak as an emergency of international significance and gave the disease its official name — COVID-2019.

According to the National Health Commission of the people's Republic of China, 68,500 confirmed cases have been recorded in the country and 1,665 people have died. However, there is also positive news.

Mi Fen, a representative of the state health Committee of China, said at a press conference today that the Proportion of seriously ill people with coronavirus in China has decreased from 15.9% to 7.2% of the total number of infected people in three weeks, which demonstrates the effectiveness of efforts to combat the disease.

There are no cases of coronavirus in Turkmenistan.