The co-founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Jack Ma, and the company’s foundations said on Wednesday they had sent medical equipment, including masks and tests kits, to Russia to help it fight the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reports.
The Alibaba Foundation and the Jack Ma Foundation said in a joint statement they had sent coronavirus tests, medical masks and other protective equipment to Russia on a charter flight from China. They did not say how much equipment had been sent.
Russia has so far reported 658 confirmed coronavirus cases and cancelled many flights to and from the country. One person who tested positive for coronavirus has died.
Earlier this month the country suspended its exports of surgical masks and medical gear, including bandages and one-use chemical protection suits, as part of its efforts to prevent the virus from spreading further.
Ma said this month he will donate 500,000 coronavirus testing kits and 1 million masks to the United States and urged international cooperation to fight the health crisis.
Ma’s initiative, a collaboration between his private charity and Alibaba Foundation, had recently donated relief materials to areas in Japan, Korea, Italy, Iran and Spain.
U.S. testing of coronavirus was hampered by flawed kits distributed by the federal government in February, which gave some false results. That has set the country back in containing an outbreak that has infected more than 122,000 people worldwide and more than 1,660 in the United States.
