HANGZHOU, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Companies based in eastern China's Zhejiang Province have been mobilized to donate epidemic prevention materials to help other countries fight against the novel coronavirus.

The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation announced Monday that they will collect and donate 1 million masks to Japan.

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group, said on Twitter-like Weibo that Japanese friends reached out when China was in great shortage, and it's time to return that favor.

About 20 days ago, various circles in Japan collected and donated 125,000 protective suits to cities across China.

Wenzhou is home to hundreds of thousands of overseas Chinese. An online donation was initiated by the city's entrepreneurs and youth to raise funds for the coronavirus fight in Italy.

On Sunday, 2,600 pairs of protective goggles worth 200,000 yuan (about 28,690 U.S. dollars), produced by local companies and donated by the glasses trade association in Wenzhou, were loaded on a plane to Italy's Turin.