Volunteers prepare donations for countries affected by COVID-19. Photo: courtesy of Blazing Youth Community

Chinese volunteers who have donated medical supplies to foreign countries to help them prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) said they had experienced difficulties in transporting the materials, and in some cases, their efforts have gone entirely to waste.

Blazing Youth Community (BY), a nongovernmental volunteer group in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province that has collected donations for multiple countries, said the process is becoming "more and more difficult" due to transport dilemmas.

BY would like the embassies of the receiving nations and consulates in China to transport the donations, most of which are face masks, goggles, and protective suits to their home countries, said a BY director Ni Kaomeng.

While most foreign diplomatic stations in China, such as Serbia, Iran, and Chile, have welcomed and helped transport the donations, there have been some who are less interested.

The embassies and consulates for Portugal and Argentina in China declined transport requests, according to BY. 

Both countries said they could only accept items made by companies that have registration certificates approved by China's medical product administrations, Ni told the Global Times.

Similarly, the Consulate General of India in Shanghai had agreed to accept and transport to India 30,000 face masks with registration certificates that BY donated but rejected thousands of other items, including non-medical face masks and gloves that the group had also prepared for India, Ni said.

A consulate official confirmed the donation with the Global Times on Monday. "Chinese customs have regulated that only medical products with the registration certificate can be exported," the official explained.

The BY donations are qualified items with other necessary domestic certificates, and they have a Conformite Europeenne (CE) license or a permit from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Ni said.

"For each donation, we attached a bilingual handbook with detailed information on the items, including brand, type, expiration date, manufacturer, and related licenses and certificates," he added.

Ni also explained that it takes time for new manufacturers to receive the registration certificate even when they have met the standards. Among the over 200 newly emerged medical face mask companies amid the pandemic in Wenzhou, fewer than 10 have finished the application process and obtained the certificate.

"It's fine to wait for the certificate," he said. "But I hope foreign embassies and consulates can be more flexible in helping transport the virus-fighting items to the people in their countries who need them."

The group has also tried other ways to transport their donations abroad, such as using air consignments and mailing international parcels. 

But neither of the two methods was satisfactory, Ni said. "Outbound flights have been reduced, and parcels are only suitable to hold small quantities of items," he added.

BY began sending donations overseas in February when the COVID-19 pandemic started to improve in China while turning serious in other countries.

According to the group, to date, it has donated over 1 million pieces of virus-prevention supplies to some 20 countries, including the US, Italy, Germany, and South Korea, valued at almost $800,000.