Pope Francis is calling for prayers after sending 60,000 facemasks to China to help combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Sixty thousand facemasks were sent to China by Holy See after learning the virus was spreadable by human-to-human contact.

Holy See, under the leadership of Pope Francis, is the governing body of the entire Catholic Church. The organization decided to send masks after seeing infection rates rise in China.

The masks were sent to Hubei, Zhejiang and Fujian as a joint mission between the Papal Almoner and the Missionary Center of the Chinese Church in Italy,

The Pope is now asking people to pray for those in the middle of the coronavirus outbreak.

"May they find a path to recovery as soon as possible,” the Pope says in his weekly General Audience in the Paul VI Hall. 

The illness has affected over 60,000 people so far and seen millions of people quarantined in Chinese cities