Burkina Faso, which has been wracked by a regional war that has seen close to 800,000 of its people displaced over the past year, has so far reported 542 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 32 deaths, while Ethiopia has reported 85 cases and three deaths.

The Chinese medical professionals would share their “anti-epidemic experience, and provide guidance and technical advice to the medical and health institutions of the two countries, and enhance their prevention and control capabilities”, Zhao said.

They were being sent in addition to the personnel and supplies already dispatched to the African Union and nations that had diplomatic ties with China, he said.

Beijing has a tradition of sending medical teams to Africa stretching back almost 60 years. According to official figures, there are currently about 1,000 Chinese medical personnel working on the continent.

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Zhao said that Chinese and African experts had held multiple videoconferences and that aside from the state-sponsored support, Chinese provinces, cities, businesses and charities had also provided aid to Africa.

Burkina Faso and Ethiopia have weak health care systems and there are growing concerns that they would be quickly overwhelmed if the coronavirus were to spread significantly. Like many African nations, they both suffer from a shortage of doctors, nurses and midwives, and according to the World Bank, have less than one hospital bed per 1,000 people.

The World Bank said in its latest report that widespread, sustained community transmission of the coronavirus would be difficult to manage in countries with poor health systems.

Beijing has already sent medical teams, personal protective equipment and other medical supplies – funded by China State Construction Engineering Corporation – to Algeria, which is Africa’s worst-hit country, with 2,160 confirmed cases and 336 deaths.

Last week, Beijing sent 15 medical professionals and US$1.5 million worth of supplies to Nigeria, around the same time that the latest shipment from the Jack Ma Foundation – comprising 500 ventilators, 200,000 protective suits and face shields, 2,000 thermometers, 1 million swabs and extraction kits, and 500,000 pairs of gloves – arrived in Ethiopia for distribution across the continent.

The foundation, named after Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, last month donated 20,000 test kits, 100,000 masks and 1,000 protective suits and face shields to each of Africa’s 54 countries.

The announcement from Zhao comes as Beijing seeks to avert a fallout with African countries after complaints that their citizens in the south China city Guangzhou were being mistreated amid a localised coronavirus outbreak in which five Nigerians with links to the same restaurant tested positive.

Kwesi Quartey, deputy chairman of the African Union Commission, said on Wednesday that he had been told by Liu Yuxi, China’s ambassador to the African Union, that the individuals whose social media posts had sparked the outcry had been arrested, and that law enforcement personnel deemed to have used excessive force had been reprimanded.

Liu said also that all Africans affected by the situation, which saw some people evicted from their homes, would be accommodated in two hotels, paid for by the central government. In all other cases, foreigners made to go into quarantine have been required to cover their own expenses.

Passports and personal belongings seized by local officials had also been returned, he said.