On Sunday, the supplies arrived in Ethiopia’s capital and will be distributed across the continent. Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who will oversee the distribution of the medical supplies to other African countries said he had received the test kits in a tweet, adding that the kits will be distributed throughout Africa starting Monday.
So far 43 of Africa's 54 countries have now confirmed cases totaling over 1,100.
On Monday, President Paul Kagame tweeted his gratitude to Jack Ma on behalf of Rwandans after receiving the kits and thanked the billionaire for "huge shot in the arm" to prevent the spread of the virus on the continent.
On Tuesday, Kenya’s Ministry of Health officials received the country’s share of supplies at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
Ma announced a donation of a total of 1.1 million testing kits, six million masks, and 60,000 protective suits and face shields to help the continent in its fight against the new coronavirus last week.
“We cannot ignore the potential risk to Africa and assume this continent of 1.3 billion people will blissfully escape the crisis,” said the statement Ma posted on his Twitter account.
Asia’s richest man has pledged to donate 1.8 million face masks and 210,000 coronavirus test kits to some of the continent’s poorest nations under the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation.
In addition, the Chinese tech titan and Alibaba founder will donate 2 million masks and 400,000 test kits and other aid to 24 Latin American countries.
