Alibaba founder Jack Ma to provide 500,000 coronavirus test kits, 1 million masks to US
Chinese billionaire businessman Jack Ma on Friday offered america 500,000 coronavirus test kits and a million masks, as the country faces a shortage of kits for diagnosing the potentially deadly disease.
In a statement on Twitter, the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba said, "Drawing from my very own country's experience, speedy and accurate testing and sufficient protective equipment for medical professionals are most effective in protecting against the spread of the virus."
"We hope that our donation can help Americans fight the pandemic!" he said in the statement, that was posted by the Jack Ma Foundation.
Ma, who's China's richest man, said that in the last weeks, his organisations had helped provide similar supplies to virus-hit countries such as Japan, South Korea, Italy, Iran and Spain.
"The pandemic we face today can't be resolved by anybody country," Ma said. "We can not beat this virus unless we eradicate boundaries to resources and share our know-how and hard-earned lessons," Ma said.
The government has come under heavy criticism for the slowness of testing for the virus, and public health officials have rebuked President Donald Trump for playing down the seriousness of the fast-spreading pandemic.
Joe Biden, the Democratic frontrunner in the race to handle Trump in elections in November, slammed having less test kits on Thursday.
"The administration's failure on testing is colossal, and it's really failing of planning, leadership and execution," the former vice president said.
