BEIJING, China Mar 16 – Chinese billionaire businessman Jack Ma has offered support to the World in combating coronavirus, donating essential equipment to the US, Europe Africa and the rest of the world.
On Friday, Jack Ma Foundation offered the United States 500,000 coronavirus test kits and a million masks, as the country faces a shortage of kits for diagnosing the potentially deadly disease. He also donated to Europe.
“We cannot ignore the potential to Africa and assume this continent of 1.3 billion people will blissfully escape the crisis,” he said through his foundation in a statement, “The World cannot afford the unthinkable consequences of a COVID-19 pandemic in Africa.”
To combat the potential surging demand for medical supplies and equipment in Africa, he said, “Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation will donate to each of the 54 African nations 20,000 testing kits, 100,000 face masks and 1000 medical use protective suits and face shields.”
Kenya is among African countries which have confirmed COVID-19 cases. There are three people being treated of the virus, with three others quarantined after showing signs that fit the definition of the virus, according to Government Spokesman Cyrus Oguna.
“We hope that our donation can help Americans fight against the pandemic!” he said in the statement, which was posted by the Jack Ma Foundation.
Ma, who is China’s richest man, said that over the past weeks, his organizations had helped provide similar supplies to virus-hit countries such as Japan, South Korea, Italy, Iran and Spain.
“The pandemic we face today can no longer be resolved by any individual country,” Ma said. “We can’t beat this virus unless we eliminate boundaries to resources and share our know-how and hard-earned lessons,” Ma said.
The US government has come under heavy criticism for the slowness of testing for the virus, and public health officials have rebuked President Donald Trump for playing down the seriousness of the fast-spreading pandemic.
Joe Biden, the Democratic frontrunner in the race to face Trump in elections in November, slammed the lack of test kits on Thursday.
“The administration’s failure on testing is colossal, and it’s a failure of planning, leadership and execution,” the former vice president said.
