The Vatican has sent hundreds of thousands of face masks to China to try to help combat the deadly coronavirus outbreak, church officials said Monday.

“The masks are destined to the provinces of Hubei, Zhejiang and Fujian,” where the outbreak has hit particularly hard, the Vatican’s press office told the Catholic News Service in an email. “It is a joint initiative of the Office of Papal Charities and the Chinese Church in Italy, in collaboration with the Vatican pharmacy.”

Vatican official Vincenzo Han Duo, who is overseeing the goodwill mission, told the Global Times that Cardinal Konrad Krajewski asked Han what he could do to help when told about the situation in China.

The Vatican then jumped into action, Han said, joining local Chinese Christian groups in Italy to purchase masks and the church transporting them to Rome for flights to China.

“Shipping in Italy is usually slow, so the Vatican Pharmacy used its own vehicles to send the masks to Rome directly,” Han said.

Air carriers such as China Southern Airlines flew the masks, gratis, to China.

So far, about 600,000 to 700,000 of the masks have been sent from Italy, the Times said.

“I hope the supplies could reach where they are needed as soon as possible, so that people who are suffering the disease could feel the concern of the [pope]. The whole world is standing together to fight the virus,” Han told the Times.

Pope Francis, in a public address last month, said, “May the Lord welcome the deceased in his peace, comfort families and support the great commitment of the Chinese community, already put in place to fight the epidemic,” the Catholic Herald reported at the time.