Coronavirus: A Chinese billionaire offers assistance to Africa

As the coronavirus is increasing its spread across Africa, the continent received a much-needed care package from Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, who vowed to assist the continent since African countries started registering confirmed cases of COVID-19.

A cargo flight containing more than 6 million medical items arrived Sunday in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. The supplies from Jack Ma, the founder of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, will be distributed to African countries in need of supplies to battle the spreading COVID-19 pandemic.

An Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight from Guangzhou, China, arrived with 5.4 million facemasks, 1.08 million testing kits, 40,000 sets of protective clothing and 60,000 protective face shields, according to Ethiopian officials and the Jack Ma Foundation.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last week pledged to distribute the supplies to other countries in Africa.

According to press reports, Jack Ma has sent similar shipments of medical supplies to countries in Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America.