A total of 320,000 disposable meal boxes have been donated to Wuhan, Hubei province, from neighboring Hunan province, after the Ministry of Commerce announced shortages on Thursday.

Wuhan and other cities in Hubei are lacking in some supplies including disposable meal boxes and insulated food cases, the use of which have increased since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, according to an online news conference by the ministry on Thursday.

Meal box container makers in Hunan were called on by the provincial bureau of commerce to collect disposable meal boxes in stock and expedite new production right away.

By Friday night, the first batch was sent from Changsha, capital of Hunan, and another 680,000 will be delivered to Wuhan within a week, according to the province's bureau of commerce.

Ikopu Packaging Co Ltd, a manufacturer in Hunan and one of the donors,, resumed production on Feb 3 to meet the increasing demand for disposable meal boxes as local employers are using the containers for their staff to take away meals from canteens to lower the risk of cross-infection.

"Supported by commercial authorities, our production lines for the containers have been increased from one to 11 with daily production volume reaching 100,000," said Ren Juanjuan, founder of the company.