Customs authorities across China have stepped up customs clearance for medical supplies from abroad amid the fight against the novel coronavirus.

From January 24 to 29, more than 10,000 postal parcels containing safety materials saw fast customs clearance, according to the customs office in the south China's city of Guangzhou.

To speed up clearance services for imported materials, the office opened special channels and prioritized the customs clearance for medical supplies, providing additional staff to ensure the imported supplies would be handled in time.

The customs of Kunming, southwestern Yunnan Province, said several batches of medical supplies from Myanmar, including millions of disposable medical masks, gloves, disinfectant and infrared thermometers, had been cleared by the customs in the past few days. 

Kunming customs also joined hands with airports and airlines, and customs officers worked around the clock to facilitate the customs clearance procedures. 

Liaoning Port Group, in northeastern China's major port city of Dalian, Liaoning Province, opened a green channel for emergency medical supplies on January 28 to ensure the smooth transit of cargo through the city's waterways. A total of 600,000 imported surgical face masks have been put into circulation.

Given the busy holiday season and lack of berths, the Dalian Container Terminal Company allowed the "Yalu River" vessel to directly start operating alongside the wharf after it arrived at the anchorage. 

The crew said they targeted the container with emergency supplies in advance and carried out an unloading-priority plan after berthing the ship, while timely informing the customer to pick up deliveries. 

"It has greatly reduced the difficulties, shortened the processing time and reduced the cost. We have realized "zero wait time in and out of the port," "zero wait time for operation," and "zero wait time for delivery," thus ensuring the best-time delivery of goods to the front line of epidemic prevention," said the port's spokesperson.

Hefei Xinqiao International Airport, in eastern China's Anhui Province, said it worked with customs to give the green light to a flight from Thailand loaded with 170,000 medical masks, taking only 90 minutes from the landing of the flight to the completion of the customs inspection. 

Northwestern Gansu Province's Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport said customs had quickly cleared two batches of 122,000 surgical masks airlifted from Vietnam. The masks are donated by a Gansu tour guide group and some overseas Chinese communities. 

Shanghai customs said a batch of relief supplies donated by UNICEF were quickly cleared at Shanghai Pudong International Airport. 

Beijing customs have set up a fast-track channel for imported relief supplies, including medicine, disinfectant, protective equipment, medical devices and other virus prevention and control materials, at airports and customs offices. 

The novel coronavirus had claimed 259 lives by the end of Friday, with 11,821 confirmed cases nationwide, Chinese health authorities said Saturday.

(CGTN's Feng Yilei also contributed to the story. Photo by Zhao Guanghui, Wang Yanxia, Xu Yuhong)

(With input from Xinhua)