A garment company in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, is now producing more than 2,000 protective gowns a day after altering its production lines that originally produced high-end Western suits on Feb 10.

The first batch of gowns by Yinchuan Binhe Ruyi Clothing Co Ltd was donated to the Yinchuan government on Thursday to help prevent and control the outbreak Covid-19 in the city.

Many workers at the company said they would like to contribute more help to fight the epidemic by producing more protective gowns.

The company has a total of 230 workers who are now on duty. Many workers immediately resume their work again only after about a few minutes for meal breaks in the workshops.

Niu Jiazhen, general manager of the company, said his company had overcome many difficulties before it changed its production line to produce protective gowns over the previous weeks.

"In addition to applications for production licenses, the company has had to purchase new materials for producing protective suits and has made great efforts to complete the testing of their performance and quality," Niu said.

"Meanwhile, the company's technicians have to train our workers first before production begins as different procedures and processes between producing Western suits and protective gowns are involved," Niu said.

And many workers were not familiar with the production materials at the beginning, he added.