Chinese firms donate medical supplies to aid COVID-19 fight overseas

By Ma Jingjing, Global Times

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese companies have actively donated medical supplies such as face masks and infrared thermometers and offered technological assistance to help combat the virus worldwide, which shows people in the country are willing to cooperate with other countries in the face of a challenge for all mankind.

Alibaba Cloud, a computing giant affiliated with e-commerce giant Alibaba, announced Thursday it would offer free CT image analytics for the virus to all countries and regions. With this technology, a CT diagnosis for a suspected case can be completed in 20 seconds, with accuracy of more than 96 percent, it said.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma's foundation announced Thursday it would donate 2 million masks, 150,000 testing kits, 20,000 protective outfits and 20,000 face shields to Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Ma earlier announced to donate a total of 6 million face masks, 1.1 million testing kits, 60,000 protective outfits and face shields to all countries in Africa via his foundation and Alibaba foundation.

Over the past few weeks, the two foundations have sent medical supplies to countries hit hard by the virus, including Japan, South Korea, Italy, Iran and Spain, including donating 1 million masks and 500,000 testing kits to the US.

Chinese health giant Fosun Group has donated a total of six batches of medical supplies to countries including Italy, Japan and India, sending at least 130,000 face masks.

The Paris branch of state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China on Wednesday donated 40,000 N95 respirator masks to Pitie Salpetriere Hospital and SAMU - two designated hospitals for confirmed cases in Paris, France. Pierre Carli, head of Pitie Salpetriere Hospital, expressed gratitude for the bank's timely help and praised Wuhan's professionalism in dealing with the outbreak.

Wuhan Guide Infrared Co in Central China's Hubei Province donated to Japan infrared thermal imaging fever screening systems worth about 1 million yuan ($141,437) to help the country contain the virus.

Last week, nutritional formula manufacturer Blue River Dairy based in Central China's Hunan Province aided Italy's anti-virus fight by donating 2.4 million yuan-worth of medical supplies, including 40,000 N95 respirator masks and 250,000 pairs of medical gloves.

Chinese commerce chambers and business groups are also actively contributing to the fight overseas. After learning of South Korea's surging coronavirus cases, the Jiangsu Chamber of Commerce in Beijing on March 5 donated 100,000 face masks, 10,000 protective outfits and 2,000 items of disinfectant to Daegu.

Chinese companies' kindness also received gratitude from other places. Jinghua Pharmaceutical Group told the Global Times on Thursday that at the donation ceremony, Ramezan Parvaz, Iran's consul general in Shanghai was touched and said "You urgently give us the most valuable anti-coronavirus drugs at the most difficult time for Iranian people. We'll never forget the friendship."

The consul said he will visit the company after the epidemic, the company said.

Fosun told the Global Times on Thursday that its Fosun Hive partner Antoine Castro received a letter of thanks from Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala. In the letter, the mayor thanked the group for generously donating medical masks to help the city contain the coronavirus. "We appreciate Fosun's help in this difficult moment," the mayor wrote.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a routine press conference on March 11 that China will strive to make contributions for the global fight against the virus, while continuing efforts to prevent and contain the virus domestically.

He said China is willing to conduct technological cooperation in drugs, vaccines and testing kits with relevant countries, offering Chinese wisdom and solutions.

Packages of urgently needed medical supplies donated by China’s Fosun Group were received in Japan, Republic of Korea and Italy. Photo courtesy of Fosun Group.