WUHAN, April 15 (Xinhua) -- A plane carrying medical supplies left Wuhan, the city once hardest hit by the novel coronavirus, on Wednesday for northeast China's Heilongjiang to aid the border province in the fight against COVID-19.

The supplies, which is worth around 30 million yuan (about 4.25 million U.S. dollars), include 50,000 medical protective suits, dozens of ventilators, 100,000 N95 respirators, and millions of other types of masks, according to Guo Tao, deputy head of the Department of Economy and Information Technology of Hubei Province, where Wuhan is the capital.

It was the first batch of medical supplies sent to Heilongjiang by the Hubei provincial government.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, various provincial-level regions across China have dispatched medical staff and aid goods to Hubei, the former center of the epidemic. Heilongjiang has sent more than 1,500 medical workers and around 3,000 tonnes of rice to the province since Jan. 27.

Heilongjiang Province, which borders Russia, reported 22 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the local health authority said Wednesday.