TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The southern city of Tainan has donated a large number of epidemic prevention supplies to its U.S. partners in the Sister Cities Program, advocating the slogan "Taiwan Can Help, Taiwan is helping."

As the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread in the U.S., Tainan in late July donated 2,900 surgical masks and 300 medical goggles to each of its six sister cities in California, Ohio, Arizona, Florida, and Missouri as part of Taiwan's mask diplomacy. As of Wednesday morning (Aug. 12), all of the donations have arrived, according to the Tainan City Government.

Quinton Lucas, mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday (Aug. 11) took to Twitter to express his gratitude for Taiwan and the people of Tainan for their "thoughtful" donation. He said the medical supplies will be given to the local Truman Medical Centers for use in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

In response, Tainan City Mayor Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) stressed that Kansas City has been a reliable partner for 42 years and he hopes both cities will be able to weather the COVID-19 storm. He said Tainan has done a good job containing the spread of the virus, so naturally, it wants to help protect people from other countries within its capacity, reported Liberty Times.

Before a closed-door meeting with U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) also pointed out that Taiwan has donated approximately 51 million masks to countries around the world. Of those, he said more than 10 million were sent to the U.S.