China Resources Group Swiftly Comes to the Aid of the Frontline Battle Against the COVID-19 Outbreak
2020-01-27,General Office

On the eve of Lunar New Year, the outbreak of novel coronavirus told hold of Wuhan, Hubei Province and quickly spread to other regions. While prevention and control work was carried out across China in accordance with relevant measures suggested by State Council of the People's Republic of China, China Resources Group headquarters and subsidiaries immediately called for action to establish effective internal control against risks and provided medical personnel to support prevention work, to resolve the problem of scarce medical supplies, ensure people with stabilised supply of necessities, in order to achieve the comprehensive prevention of the epidemic.

On 24 January (Lunar New Year’s Eve), China Resources Group’s emergency response team was organised and was determined to fight against the epidemic. The medical institutions under CR Medical and CR Healthcare provided medical personnel to help prevention work in the frontline. On 22 January (the 28th of the twelfth lunar month), CR and Wisco General Hospital under CR Medical provided the first medical personnel of 8 healthcare workers to Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital. The following day, the second medical personnel of 60 healthcare workers from CR and Wisco General Hospital and 26 healthcare workers from The Second Hospital of Wisco reported to the frontline and took up prevention work under the leadership of local command. Nearly one thousand healthcare workers from the medical institutions of CR Healthcare sought participation in prevention work. The first batch of medical personnel consisting 12 healthcare workers from CR and LHIG went to Wuhan on the afternoon of 26 January, 4 healthcare workers of Pingkuang General Hospital went to Hubei Province on the evening of 26 January. The medical workers were determined to join hands with the people of Hubei to overcome this tough time, and they were so hailed as the Heroes in Harm’s Way. Another two enterprises provided trainings on epidemic prevention, treatment and emergency drillings for all workers of their medical institutions, to enhance overall epidemic prevention work. Many of their hospitals provided 24-hour fever out-patient service to as many patients as possible, in order to set up the first line of defence against epidemic with the aid of software system and the medical personnel.

In face of scarce medical supplies, the relevant enterprises of CR Medical and CR Pharma Comm made every effort to gather all resources from different locations and integrated such resources into the supply chain. By 25 January, CR Hubei Pharmaceutical mobilized more than 80 workers to work day and night during holiday to provided about 21,000 medical devices, 480,000 medical items. For satisfying the needs of hospitals, Binhu Double Crane Pharmaceutical provided up to 12,205 boxes of 460,110 injection products to fulfil needs of 28 hospitals during the period from 19 January to present. CR Guangdong Pharmaceutical and Anhui Medical and Pharmaceutical had their immediate response to needs of frontline hospitals regarding deployment of supplies and transport. CMH Healthcare Fund established a working group to arrange the materials provided by Japanese enterprises HOPO and Mitsui, and donated such materials to two hospitals under China Resources Group in Wuhan.

CR Sanjiu, CR Jiangzhong, Dexin Hang Pharmacies of CR Pharma Comm not only made every effort to satisfying needs of frontline hospitals, but also contributed to stabilizing overall supply to the public. On the afternoon of 23 January, CR Sanjiu was open for people to access and gave away 7,000 boxes of 28,000 masks to the people in need (Hubei Province was given first priority). The Chinese medicine division of CR Sanjiu coordinated the experienced Chinese medicine practitioners across China to develop the formula for Chinese medicine for prophylactic purposes, and gave away “Sanjiu Chinese Medicine with Prophylactic Formula for Novel Coronavirus” with online and physical stores. Hundreds of medical institutions which cooperated with CR Sanjiu to produce Chinese Medicine granules remained in operation and provided 24-hour online consultation for patients across China. With a view to coping with the possible increasing demand for anti-epidemic medicines, CR Jiangzhong immediately formulated a production plan for anti-epidemic medicines, exerted itself in producing the required medicines around the clock during Lunar New Year to ensure supply of epidemic prevention medicines with rising cost pressure at its cost, and gave away part of the medicines produced to China Medical Pharmaceutical Material Association. Over 800 pharmacies under CR Medical cooperated with upstream manufacturers to ensure stable supply, price stabilization and providing attentive services. Beijing Dexin Hang Medical Insurance Pharmacy purchased nearly 90,000 merchandises before Lunar New Year to cope with the increased demand during Lunar New Year. By 3:38am on 24 January, deliveries were made to all 17 retail stores.

Apart from medical enterprises, all business units under China Resources performed their respective functions to help with epidemic prevention work. CR Vanguard immediately conducted epidemic prevention measures concerning merchandise such as masks, disinfectants, disinfectant liquid, disinfectant tissues and vinegar. With a promise of “stabilizing price and assuring supply”, some of its retail stores that stayed in operations worked hard to ensure stable supply of products such as vegetables, in order to avoid public panic. CR Land and other enterprises actively appealed to their staff to make donations and express their support to the epidemic area. CR Bank and other business units initiated epidemic prevention and response mechanisms and conducted effective measures to fight against the outbreak.