Fifty thousand pieces of medical protective clothing from Germany, the first batch of medical supplies urgently needed in areas affected by the novel coronavirus epidemic and purchased and allocated globally by Chinese conglomerate Fosun, arrived at Shanghai early Tuesday morning.

It was also the first batch of medical materials allocated from overseas since the start of the novel coronavirus outbreak, according to Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

All of the clothing from Frankfurt will be transported to hospitals in Shanghai and Wuhan, the epicenter, to support frontline medical workers and best protect their safety after going through streamlined customs procedures.

The clothing headed to Wuhan is expected to arrive in the city Tuesday night, according to Fosun.

Guo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun International, said that the company had ordered 330,000 medical face masks and 270,000 items of medical protective clothing from overseas, and these supplies from the United Kingdom, Portugal, Germany, India and Japan will arrive in China with the fastest possible speed in the coming few days and will aid the work of frontline medical staff.

"I regard such supplies as carrying strategic significance to the country at the moment," Guo said.

There are 100,000 face masks purchased from India scheduled to arrive at Shanghai Pudong airport on Tuesday night, according to Fosun.

Guo said the group is making preparations to collaborate with Moderna Therapeutics, a United States-based new drug company, to jointly launch research and development and production of new vaccines targeting novel coronavirus-related pneumonia. The vaccine products are expected to complete research and development within several months and then realize scale production.