Jack Ma is continuing with his earlier philanthropic efforts in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic by providing additional 1.8 million masks and thousands of test kits to Asian countries that are under-equipped to fight the pandemic. These countries include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Jack Ma has been on the front lines in the fight against coronavirus and was one of the first billionaire individuals to respond to the threat of what has now become a global pandemic. The CEO and his company have been fighting to preclude the spread of the virus, and have raised awareness and capital help for the cause.
In a tweet, Ma announced the donation of supplies to countries that are experiencing shortages.
The Alibaba Group founder is donating these through his Jack Ma Foundation. As a part of the donation, 1.8 million masks, some 210,000 test kits, 36K protetive suits along with ventilators and other medical equipment will be sent to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation, both under the supervision of Jack Ma, have chipped in the global fight against COVID-19. Before the recent announcement, the two organizations had sent aid to US, Italy, Japan, Iran etc. The CEO has also been active in the continent of Africa, where resources are scarce, expending thousands of testing kits and masks in the region.
Alibaba’s cloud business unit has also offered its artificial intelligence-powered technologies to provide data insights on the current coronavirus pandemic and speed up diagnosis. The platform is hoping to gain insight from lessons learnt during the course of the pandemic and use them to pick up on suspected patients and speed up diagnosis. The software, developed at the Damo research centre, has been tested successfully in Chinese hospitals for 5,000 patients. Moreover, the tool is reportedly well-equipped to diagnose COVID-19 quickly with 96% accuracy.
