Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, has announced a new donation for Africa amid WHO’s warning that the continent could see 10 million cases in six months.
“Our 3rd donation to Africa will immediately be made to @_africanunion and @AfricaCDC,” Ma wrote on his twitter handle Monday.
Ma said the donations include 4.6m masks, 500,000 swabs & test kits, 300 ventilators, 200,000 clothing sets, 200,000 face shields, 2,000 thermal guns, 100 body temperature scanners and 500,000 pairs of gloves.
Last month, Ma donated around 1.1 million testing kits, 6 million masks and 60,000 medical use protective suits and face shields that were distributed among the 54 African nations with each receiving 20,000 testing kits, 100,000 masks and 1,000 medical use protective suits and face shields, according to CGTN Africa, Nairobi-based African Bureau of China Global Television Network.
NCDC data showed that of 100,000 face masks (ordinary) donated by Jack Ma, Lagos, the worst-hit state in Nigeria received 27,678 (27.68 percent) at the time of distribution. The commercial capital city also received 25.96 percent or 2,596 of 9,999 coverall gown, while it got 165 (18 percent) out of 913 face shields.Data on the 20,000 runs of reagents for testing donated to Nigeria was not provided. Resources were shared with other states with priority given to those with critical numbers.
Ma’s pledge comes less than a week after Michel Yao, head of emergency operations for WHO Africa warned that Coronavirus cases in Africa could spike from a few thousands currently to 10 million in as little as three to six months.
Confirmed cases on the continent as at 7:00 pm was 23,582 after 616 new cases were confirmed. There have been 1,155 deaths and 6,171 recoveries according to Worldometer.
For Nigeria, WHO’s forecast is worrisome given that cases in the country have risen 5,125 percent in the last one month (as at Monday 7pm) despite the lockdown of some states for the better part of that time.
However, Ma’s donation would strengthen the capacity for the country to test more people and slow the spread of the disease that has infected 627 people and killed 21, including President Buhari’s chief of staff Abba Kyari.
Nigeria has carried out less than 10,000 tests while Ghana, which strategically lifted lockdown Monday, has carried out over 50,000 tests according to some estimates.
To strengthen the country’s testing capacity, the private sector-led Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) has ordered for 250,000 supplies for tests and another 150,000 extraction kits to fast-track molecular testing for the deadly coronavirus CNBC reported Monday citing Africa Press Office Group.
Notably, 170 persons have recovered from COVID-19 so far while Lagos, which accounts for more than half of the country’s cases, has announced 26 walk-in testing centres across its local government areas.
