The third batch of medical supplies donated by Jack Ma Foundation to African Union Member States to assist their response to the coronavirus pandemic has arrived on the continent.

Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed Ali, confirmed the receipt of the essential equipment in Addis Ababa, the nation’s capital and host of the AU Headquarters.

Today we received the third round of essential medical supplies from Jack Ma including 199,300 protective clothing, 300 ventilators, 708 thermometer guns, 28,500 medical gloves, and 3,800 faces shields. Thank you for continuing to show solidarity with Africa,

he tweeted on Monday evening.

The supplies would be shared and distributed by Ethiopian Airlines to Nigeria and 53 other AU Member States to help in their response against the virus.

The medical equipment will be distributed through Ethiopian Airlines to the 54 African countries,

the airline tweeted too.

Earlier on March 16, the philanthropist had donated his first batch of medical supplies comprising 20,000 test kits, 100,000 masks, 1,000 medical protective suits and face shields to each of the 54 AU Member States.

Also, on April 6, Jack Ma dispatched his second donation to Africa which included 500 ventilators, 200,000 suits and face shields, 2,000 thermometers, one million swabs, and extraction kits as well as 500,000 gloves.

According to the World Health Organisation COVID-19 Situation Report on Tuesday, over 33,000 cases have been reported on the African continent with over 10,000 associated recoveries and 1,400 deaths.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.