Jack Ma donates masks, medical supplies to help coronavirus fight in Asia and Latin America
- Latest shipments will include face masks, testing kits, protective suits, ventilators and thermometers
- Ma’s foundations have been sending emergency gear to Europe, Africa, North America and elsewhere in Asia amid global shortages
Alibaba founder Jack Ma has pledged to donate emergency supplies such as face masks and testing kits to 24 Latin American countries and some of Asia’s poorest nations to combat the coronavirus.
Ma said in a tweet on Sunday that his foundation would donate 2 million masks, 400,000 testing kits and 104 ventilators to 24 Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Peru. “We will ship long-distance, and we will hurry!” Ma wrote.
The Alibaba Foundation on Saturday said it had offered supplies to 10 countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Those supplies would include 1.8 million face masks, 210,000 testing kits, 36,000 protective suits, and ventilators and thermometers, Ma, one of Asia’s richest men, said in a tweet on Saturday.
It came after the Alibaba Foundation said last week it was preparing to send 2 million face masks, 150,000 testing kits, 20,000 protective suits and 20,000 face shields to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.
On Monday, Ma also announced on his newly opened Twitter account that the first shipment of face masks and testing kits had been sent to the United States.