Medical Supplies Donated by Jack Ma Foundation Arrives in Addis Ababa

ENA,March 22/2020 The first shipment of medical supplies donated by the Chinese Jack Ma Foundation to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in African countries arrived on Sunday morning in Addis Ababa. 

Prime Minister  Abiy Ahmed, with the Chinese tycoon Jack Ma, founder of the Jack Ma Foundation, and the Alibaba Foundation have jointly launched a relief initiative to support African countries with diagnostics and infection prevention control commodities  to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, it was indicated.

The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation’s donation will include 1.1 million testing kits, 6 million masks and 60,000 protective suits to be distributed throughout Africa – accounting for 20, 000 test kits, 100,000 medical masks and 1,000 protective suits and face shields to each of the 54 countries, according to the office of the prime minister.

The first shipment arrived today include 20,000 testing kits, 100,000 masks and 1,000 medical use protective suits and face shields.   

Following the arrival of the supplies in Ethiopia today, the Ministry of Health will coordinate the logistics and work with Ethiopian Airlines, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several partners supporting the initiative for the distribution to the different countries which include the World Food Program, and the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Similarly, Ethiopia has received over 100,000 face masks and other anti-epidemic supplies for the fight against COVID-19 donated by the Chinese Huajian Group yesterday.  

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across Africa has climbed to 1,114 as 40 African countries reported confirmed cases as of Saturday afternoon, the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention disclosed.

Ethiopia has also confirmed two more cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) today, bringing the total number to 11.