HARBIN, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Hubei, the former center of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, has sent medical supplies to the border province of Heilongjiang in northeast China amid the rising pressure of imported COVID-19 cases.

Three planes carrying medical protective suits, N95 masks and ventilators landed at the airports in the provincial capital of Harbin and the border city of Mudanjiang on Wednesday afternoon, according to the publicity department of the provincial committee of the Communist Party of China.

The materials, worth about 30 million yuan (around 4.2 million U.S. dollars), were later delivered to the city of Suifenhe, which is under the jurisdiction of Mudanjiang at the China-Russia border.

After the epidemic outbreak, Hubei saw more than 1,000 medics assigned from Heilongjiang to assist the treatment of COVID-19 patients, as well as an influx of medical supplies and rice from Heilongjiang. Now that the number of imported COVID-19 cases keeps rising at the China-Russia border, the assistance has been rushing to Heilongjiang, said an official with the department.

By Wednesday, the province had reported 354 confirmed imported COVID-19 cases, with another 50 asymptomatic cases.