Addis Ababa, April 24, 2020 (FBC) – African nations that lack ventilators for the treatment of COVID-19 patients will receive some from a donation of 300 supplied by the Jack Ma Foundation, the head of the continent’s disease control body said on Thursday.
John Nkengasong, the head of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC), a branch of the African Union, said last week that ten unidentified African nations were facing the pandemic without a single ventilator.
“Those countries without ventilators will be prioritized,” he told a news conference, adding that they will arrive in the coming weeks.
Ma, the Chinese billionaire founder of Alibaba Group, has donated thousands of tests kits for the new corona virus, masks and protective gear to all African nations.
“As of this week in a continent of 1.3 billion people, just about 415 thousands tests have been conducted,” he said, urging governments to scale up testing to be ahead of the virus.
The head said that in the coming months, the goal is to test 10 million people across the continent.
Source: Reuters