23,000 Medical Supplies Donated By Tri-Valley Group

TRI-VALLEY, CA — In just one week, the Tri-Valley Asian Association raised $9,000 to purchase personal protective equipment for Bay Area health care workers responding to the new coronavirus outbreak. So far the nonprofit has donated 20,000 pairs of gloves, 2,869 masks, 126 pairs of shoe covers, 27 gowns and 11 packs of disinfecting wipes to hospitals in the East Bay and beyond.

The fundraising effort kicked off on March 22, said Grace Li, president of the nonprofit. A day later, TVAA had collected $5,200.

"I was totally amazed by the community response," she said.

"It's a testament to our country and also to our community."

Li said it has reached 70 percent of its target so far and collected enough supplies to distribute to Stanford ValleyCare in Pleasanton, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, San Leandro Hospital and Regional Medical Center of San Jose.

Jie Liu, a nurse who lives in Tri-Valley and a recipient of the donations, said Li approached her and asked how TVAA could support her and her colleagues. Hours later TVAA delivered her a box of head-to-toe protective gowns.

The gesture was meaningful to Liu, who has been pitching in to help COVID-19 patients at the hospital where she works. She felt anxious and unprepared, but the TVAA donations put her and her colleagues more at ease.

"This is kind of like a war," Liu said. "We all have to work together and we can win."

TVAA planned to receive 10,000 FDA-certified masks Monday, and another 10,000 surgical masks from the China Federation of Overseas Chinese in the province of Hunan, Li said. TVAA founder and board member Sylvia Tian said her family has delivered baggies with masks and hand sanitizer to neighbors.

Chinese Americans with ties to China understood the gravity of the situation early on, Tian said. Many heard about a shortage of protective gear in China and searched for masks to ship to families, friends and doctors in the epicenter of the outbreak.

Now that China is restarting its economy and there are more confirmed coronavirus cases in America than anywhere else in the world, Chinese Americans are calling on loved ones there and across the world to send protective gear to the United States, Tian said.

Protective gear from other countries has been even harder to come by since flight capacity has been reduced and less cargo is coming to America from overseas, Tian said.

"We are concerned," she said. "We love the people around us, we have friends and family who work in the hospitals ... (who) update us every day on the lack of equipment."

While Li said the Tri-Valley community has been kind to Chinese Americans amid the outbreak, Asian Americans have reported experiencing xenophobia and racism related to coronavirus. Li said Chinese Americans are also victims of the outbreak and she is concerned about how non-Asian kids might respond to Asian American students when they return to school.

"In these difficult times, we should unite together to fight the virus, not fight each other because of the color of our skin," she said.

Tian said her son — who had never left the country — was confronted by a classmate who asked if he was still carrying the virus.

"We are part of the United States, we are part of this society," she said. "People who don't have enough knowledge would think that it's the Chinese people" who have been infected.