After donating millions of dollars worth of support to the United States and other hard-hit countries such as Iran and Italy, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma is now giving out millions more to support Africa's fight against the viral epidemic. Alibaba's founder revealed on social media that he will be providing equipment and other necessary items to Africa to boost its ability to handle the virus.
In a post on Weibo on Monday night, Ma stated that each of the 54 African countries will be receiving 20,000 Covid-19 test kits, 1,000 medical-use protective suits, and 100,000 masks. Ma, who stepped down as Alibaba's chairman last year, explained that the world simply cannot afford to handle the repercussions of a full-blown pandemic in Africa.
In line with his mandate, Ma's companies will be sending a total of 1.1 million Covid-19 testing kits, 60,000 medical-use protective suits, and 6 million masks to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. Ma has reached a deal with Prince Minister Abiy Ahmed, who had agreed to take the lead in the logistics and distributions of the vital medical equipment to the rest of the continent.
Local media reports previously revealed that Ma had met with the Prince at the office of the Prime Minister in Addis Abba following news of confirmed cases within the continent. As the virus continued to spread throughout the continent, many African countries were reportedly struggling to cope as their health care systems were ill-equipped to handle the crisis.
Ahmed had mentioned that he had reached out to Ma to help the region acquire the necessary equipment to fight the epidemic. Ma also offered to supply Africa with the necessary informational packets and guideline books to teach staff and responders the proper way of treating infected patients.
In a post on Twitter on Sunday, Ahmed stated that he had reached an agreement with Ma to work together to halt the spread of the virus on the continent. Given its first-hand experience and ongoing response to the pandemic, China is well-equipped to provide support to less-prepared nations. The country had recently ramped up the production of necessary medical items to combat the disease worldwide. Production of items such as face masks has increased by more than five-fold in a span of less than a month as demand for the items continues to rise.
According to China's National Development and Reform Commission, the daily production capacity of face masks had surged to more than 110 million at the end of February. This was a substantial increase from the 20 million daily capacity recorded at the start of the month.
Over the past few days, the number of coronavirus cases in Africa has reached more than 300. The different African nations are now scrambling to impose measures to control the spread of the virus, with a number of countries already banning travels from countries with escalating confirmed cases.
