Jack Ma, China’s richest man, is sending the second donation to fifty-four countries in Africa to help them fight the spread of coronavirus, Ethiopian PM office said on Monday, 6 April 2020 in a statement.
Through the “PM Abiy-Jack Ma (Alibaba) initiative” Ma previously donated a total of one-point-one million coronavirus test kits, six million masks and sixty-thousand medical protective suits and face shields to the African nations.
The second donation includes five-hundred ventilators, two-hundred thousand suits and face shields, two-thousand thermometers, one million swabs, and extraction kits as well as five-hundred thousand gloves.
Jack Ma thanked Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian Airlines (Ethiopian), the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and WFP (The World Food Programme) for their partnership.
Dr Abiy Ahmed took the lead in managing and distributing the medical supplies to the African countries. Ethiopia also delivered supplies to all African nations.
In a recent report, the UN said Africa is facing the “complete collapse of economies and livelihoods” unless the spread of coronavirus can be contained.
More than half of the continent’s fifty-four countries have imposed lockdowns, curfews, travel restrictions and other measures in a bid to prevent the local transmission of the virus. There are now more than one-point-two million cases globally and the disease has caused more than sixty-five thousand deaths, with, the US and Italy worst-hit.
Africa has so far recorded just eight-thousand cases of COVID-19 and three-hundred and thirty-four deaths, while seven-hundred and two people have recovered, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
– APA
