BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is ramping up production of a new product, face masks, in response to a shortage amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

The company started a plan on Feb. 6 to build 21 face mask production lines, 16 of which have started operation and manufactured more than 5.5 million face masks in total, it said on its website.

The CNPC expected all the production lines to come online by the end of March, likely to bring the daily production capacity to 1.5 million masks.

The company also planned to add four production lines of melt-blown non-woven fabric, which are expected to start operation at the end of April. As the essential material to make medical masks, the fabric is the filtering layer in the middle of the mask.

The world is now in a battle against COVID-19, which has spread to over 180 countries and regions.

The Chinese health authority said Wednesday that no new domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases were reported on the Chinese mainland, but it received reports of 47 imported cases Tuesday.