A staff member works in a factory producing face mask earloop in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, March 5, 2020. The factory has resumed production of face mask earloop to aid the fight against the novel coronavirus. Photo:Xinhua

Chinese netizens are currently watching the livestream of a factory producing urgently needed mask materials after the previous livestreams of hospital constructions for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients went viral online. 

Sinopec Yanshan Petrochemical Company (Sinopec Yanshan), a subsidiary of state-run oil giant China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec), is livestreaming online its production of melt-blown fabric from11:00 pm on Friday to 11:00 pm on Sunday.

The livestream, showing a wide-angle shot of a brightly lit factory plant with some busy workers inside, has garnered about 250,000 viewers as of 11:00 pm Saturday.

Melt-blown fabric is an essential upstream material for making N95 medical masks. It is in urgent need as the downstream mask-making machines have accelerated operation to meet the rapidly growing mask demand for the frontline medical workers.

To mitigate the fabric shortage, Sinopec announced on February 24 to invest 200 million yuan ($28.9 million) in setting up melt-blown fabric production lines in Beijing and East China's Jiangsu Province, according to a Sinopec statement.

The construction project of the assembly lines in the Beijing-based Sinopec Yanshan concluded on Thursday, within ten days after its commencement on February 24, according to a statement of the State-owned Assets Supervision Administration Commission on its official WeChat account Saturday. 

The first roll of fabric was made at late night of Friday as the livestreaming session was on, it added.

The ongoing livestream that broadcasts fabric production reminded some netizens of the livestreams of the construction work of Huoshenshan and Leishenshan, two hospitals erected within just ten days to admit and treat COVID-19 patients in Wuhan of Central China's Hubei Province. That livestream had attracted 60 million viewers who dubbed themselves "online overseers" of the constructions.

Similar to the previous hospital building livestreams, the fabric production one has won praises from audiences who cheered the speed and effectiveness of the project as well as the hard work of its workers.

"It's amazing that they built the production lines within just 10 days," a viewer commented online on Saturday. "We gonna soon have lots of melt-blown fabrics to make masks for our frontline doctors and nurses."

Global Times