China Helps Asia in Fighting Coronavirus

Saturday 28th of March 2020

China Helps Asia in Fighting Coronavirus

China has sent medical supplies to several countries in Asia to help them stem the fast-growing coronavirus pandemic. The country, with a total of 81,394 cases, 3,295 deaths and 74,971 recovered currently, has been seeing positive results in containing the virus. Now, the country is fighting against imported cases of the virus.

On 27th March, the first shipment of emergency medical supplies from China arrived in the Maldives. Ambassador Zhang had earlier assured that China would assist the Maldives, acknowledging that the Maldives had supported China during its time of distress and that China would return the support.

According to Bangladesh officials on 26th March, China’s Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming handed over medical supplies including 10,000 testing kits, 10,000 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) and 1,000 infrared thermometers.

A Chinese company, Savanta Biotechnology, on 25th March donated 2,000 sets of coronavirus testing kits to Nepal’s Embassy in Beijing. The kits worth $4700 are likely to reach Kathmandu over the weekend.

On 27th March, in Pakistan, a special plane carrying medical supplies, including over 50,000 testing kits, face masks, and other equipment landed on Friday, an official statement said. This was the second cache of medical supplies donated by Beijing to its longtime ally Islamabad in less than a week.

Moreover, Jack Ma, China's top philanthropist and founder of Ali Baba Group, has sent supplies to many countries in Asia including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.