The Korean Red Cross said Tuesday that it had collected 53.5 billion won ($43.9 million) in donations since Feb. 27 to help fight the novel coronavirus, and spent 33.4 billion won of it on emergency relief.

Masks, protective clothing and medical gloves worth 13.7 billion won have been delivered to medical institutions and staff treating COVID-19 patients.

About 2.9 billion won was spent on providing masks and care packages to patients confirmed with the virus, and another 13.9 billion won went to masks and emergency food for underprivileged senior citizens who live alone or with only their grandchildren.

Some 1.3 billion won was spent on emergency food packages for those under self-quarantine at homes, and 1.4 billion won went to emergency relief packages for those isolated in other facilities.

The Red Cross said it purchased and delivered some 6.48 million masks, 80,000 pieces of protective clothing, 1.32 million pairs of medical gloves, 490,000 hand sanitizers, 15,000 emergency relief packages and 48,000 emergency food packages.

The humanitarian network also sent 10 psychotherapists to public mental health welfare centers in Daegu, providing counseling for 2,091 people, including the underprivileged.

The Red Cross said it will continue to consult central and local governments to use the donations for quarantine and disease prevention.

Donations can be made to the Korean Red Cross account at Woori Bank 1005-603-230829, via ARS call to 060-707-1234 (5,000 won per call), via text message to #70798179 (2,000 won per message) and at www.redcross.or.kr.

Amounts of donations collected daily by the Korean Red Cross and its weekly execution plans can be viewed at its website.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)