China will step up the operation capability of charities after problems arose during their handling of donations for the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Monday.

Zhan Chengfu, vice-minister, said at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office: "As of Sunday, the charities at all levels, including the Red Cross Society of China, have received cash donations of about 29.3 billion yuan (about $4.2 billion), along with 522 million items of relief materials."

To date, over 23.98 billion yuan has been distributed, as well as 466 million items of supplies, he said, adding that it provided solid proof that people are donating generously.

"The philanthropy in the modern era cannot work without charitable organizations," He said, adding, "The charities have linked the donators with the most needed."

Since the outbreak, charitable organizations have indeed done a great deal of work, which, together with the Party and government authorities, created a joint force to facilitate the battle against the epidemic, Zhan added.

However, Zhan also noted that the novel coronavirus outbreak also tested the ability of civic-minded groups which still need to tackle problems such as slow, incomplete and opaque information disclosure and inefficiency in donation projects.

"China has related laws and regulation in terms of the misconducts. But there is still a long way to go before we put them into actions," he said, adding that the ministry will strengthen its supervision over charities to make these organizations better serve the public in the future emergences.

The ministry needs to draw lessons from the epidemic in a bid to improve its charitable governance capacity in responding to major public health events and huge catastrophic events, he added.