Five young men took turns at the wheel to drive 17 hours from Gaomi in East China's Shandong province to Huanggang in Central China's Hubei province, to deliver 50,000 facial masks in a bid to contribute to efforts to prevent and control the spread of novel coronavirus, iqilu.com reported on Saturday.

The five young men set off at 10 pm on Wednesday. At 2 pm the next day, they arrived at Huanggang, the second-worst hit area in Hubei since the outbreak began in the provincial capital, Wuhan.

Due to lockdown on parts of the highway and safety concerns, a Huangzhou District People's Hospital staff member met them and accepted the facial masks.

"We appreciated their efforts on driving such a long distance to send the facial masks. They must have overcome many difficulties," said Ruan Chen, the medical staffer.