Pittsburgh's Brother's Brother Foundation sending 450,000 surgical masks to China

Brother’s Brother Foundation will ship a massive global relief package to China on Thursday to help combat the coronavirus.

The shipment of 450,000 surgical face masks and 1,350 coverall protective suits will be distributed to hospitals treating patients with the virus across Wuhan, Huang Gang, Beijing and Chengdu provinces.

Sarah Boal, assistant vice principal for Disaster Response and Strategic Initiatives at the Pittsburgh-based foundation, said this shipment is about four times the size of a previous package Brother’s Brother sent to China. She said the foundation hopes to send at least one more package, but it will continue gathering supplies and sending them over as long as there is a need.

“Because there has been a global shortage of these items, it’s been very hard for our organization to find these,” Boal said. “These large donations came in exactly when they were needed.”

In total, the foundation has sent 29 palettes of supplies containing 630,000 surgical masks and 1,350 protective suits thus far. The only organization to have sent more than that is Direct Relief in San Francisco, which has sent 140 palettes of supplies, Boal said.

Boal said the last major health emergency that Brother’s Brother addressed was the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

“We are now approaching the size and scale of the response that we did for Ebola,” Boal said.

The four Chinese provinces receiving supplies from Brother’s Brother have the highest concentration of coronavirus patients, according to a news release.

The package was compiled with the help of several Pittsburgh organizations and leaders including Mayor Bill Peduto, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, the Idea Foundry, UPMC, Allegheny Health Network and Sister Cities.

Boal said that each contributor provided something different — whether it was monetary donations, connections and contacts, translation skills or expertise in Chinese customs processing.

“Those are things we cannot do these efforts without,” Boal said.

Wuhan, where the outbreak first began late last year, is one of Pittsburgh’s 20 sister cities. In January, Peduto announced plans to organize a care package for the city of 11 million people.

“We’re always trying to reach our neighbors, and this is a great example of how Pittsburgh has a great local heart but still reaches to have a global impact,” said Boal.

While health officials say Pennsylvania residents have little reason to fear infection from the deadly respiratory virus, Pittsburgh Public Safety officials have taken steps to protect the city from a potential outbreak.

Earlier this month, a University of Pittsburgh laboratory was approved to receive samples of coronavirus to research a possible vaccine.