About 500 mothers have called the Shanghai Children’s Hospital to offer breast milk after the hospital said its supplies could run out within a week, a hospital official told Shanghai Daily yesterday.

The city’s first “breast milk bank” was established at the hospital eight months ago for premature babies, for whom breast milk is vital.

The hospital said it has collected more than 470 liters of milk over the past eight months and serves an average 13 premature babies a day at 2-3 liters a day.

But the hospital now only has about 20 liters as the cold discourages volunteers from going to hospital to donate.

“Thanks to positive reactions from the mothers, we believe that the bank will be filled up again very soon,” said a doctor surnamed Pan who is responsible for taking calls from interested mothers.

Pan said first-time donors must undergo a blood test before donating. They can then express milk at home and freeze it. It is also possible to donate fresh at the hospital. Pan told Shanghai Daily that this bank also serves babies born at other hospitals, but so far there has only been one request.

“Parents of babies born in other hospitals have to come to us every day to get fresh milk, which could be a trouble for them,” she said. Interested mothers can call 18017329172 and talk to Doctor Pan.

China plans to relocate 3.4 million people from poverty-stricken communities to more developed areas this year as part of its poverty reduction drive, according to government sources.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s economic planner, said 2.49 million people living in poverty had been relocated in 2016, meeting the target for the year.

By the end of 2016, there were relocation projects in 22 provinces, which include housing, infrastructure and public services, Yang Qian, an official with the NDRC said.

Local authorities are also exploring supportive industries, employment and social security for the relocated people.

China has vowed to lift all of its poor out of poverty by 2020. Alleviating poverty through relocation is one aspect of the strategy.

By the end of 2016, there were 45 million people living in poverty, many in areas without roads, clean drinking water or power.

East China’s Zhejiang Province was a “Jurassic Park” with a wide variety of dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period, according to findings of a six-year survey.

A total 82 dinosaur fossil sites, with at least six dinosaur species and 25 types of fossil dinosaur eggs, were confirmed during the survey by a joint team of experts from the Zhejiang Institute of Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology and Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, between 2006 and 2013.

The research recently won a second-class award from the Ministry of Land and Resources.

Scientists identified eight new species among the fossils.

The survey covered an area of 11,000 square kilometers in Zhejiang,

Scientists have used various research techniques ranging from geology, paleobiology to chronostratigraphy, combined with site inspections and excavations in their study, making it the most comprehensive research on dinosaur fossils in the province to date.

“It has been proved that a large quantity of dinosaurs lived in Zhejiang during the Cretaceous period, about 65 million to 145 million years ago,” said Jin Xingsheng, deputy curator of Zhejiang Museum of Natural History. “Compare with other southeastern provinces, Zhejiang has the largest amount of dinosaur fossils.”

Their discoveries also give evidence to the general thought that a comet or asteroid impact caused the mass extinction of dinosaurs.

Scientists found that sedimentary rocks, where most dinosaur fossils were unearthed, were sanwiched between two layers of volcanic rocks, indicating vegetation was lush and suitable for dinosaurs in the early and middle Cretaceous period.

The evidence showed a catastrophe in the late Cretaceous period might have ended the age of prehistoric creatures. Scientists believed the hit of an asteroid was the most likely reason as it can result in a series of sudden climate changes such as volcanic eruptions, crustal faults and generate radioactive substances that cause the dinosaurs to die out.

A new round of air pollution is expected to hit Beijing and parts of northern and eastern China due to unfavorable weather conditions, the China National Environmental Monitoring Center has warned.

Apart from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which is expected to see heavy pollution from Feb. 12 to 15, air quality in more than 20 cities in provinces such as Shandong and Henan is forecast to deteriorate from Feb. 14 to 15 due to unfavorable weather conditions.

A cold front is expected to help disperse the pollution on Feb. 16.

Taiwan has reported three H5N6 bird flu cases this week, and authorities are reinforcing measures to prevent further infections.

The latest case was reported Sunday when turkeys from a farm in Tainan city were confirmed as infected with the virus, according to Taiwan’s animal and plant inspection authority.

More than 3,000 turkeys on the farm died in an unusually short space of time before the authority conducted tests to confirm the virus.

The first H5N6 case was confirmed Feb. 5 in a dead goose found on a farm road in eastern Hualien county. On Feb. 11, samples from 3,789 slaughtered ducks, from a farm near where the gosling was found, also tested positive for the virus.

The authority said that the virus’ DNA sequence was 99 percent the same as a similar virus found in the Republic of Korea and Japan, where more than 35 million fowl have been culled in three months.

Taiwan is a common destination for migrating birds to spend the winter. Its farms have reported 13 avian flu cases this year, though mainly caused by the H5N2 or H5N8 virus.

The island has urged farms to reinforce safety checks and speedily report the unusual death of animals, threatening heavy fines for farms that attempt to cover-up any outbreaks.