Jack Ma Foundation sends ventilators, masks, essential medical supplies to India

The Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation have sent the first tranche of medical supplies to India on Saturday. This was donated to the Indian Red Cross Society and more such supplies are expected in the future. Jack Ma is a Chinese business magnate, investor, and politician. He is the co-founder and former executive chairman of the Alibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate.

Joint Secretary of Health Ministry, Lav Aggarwal said on Sunday said, "We got a shipment yesterday, which has masks, Personal Protective Equipment, and ventilators."

India had back in February sent 15 tonnes of medical assistance comprising masks, gloves and other emergency medical equipment to China.

The assistance included one lakh pieces of surgical masks, five lakh pairs of surgical gloves, 75 pieces of infusion pumps, 30 pieces of external feeding pumps, 21 pieces of the defibrillators and 4000 pieces of N95 masks. The total cost of these medical supplies was worth an estimated Rs 2.11 crore.

These supplies were delivered by an Indian Air Force C-17 special flight jet which landed in Wuhan, China, and in the return flight, the jet brought back several stranded Indians from China. The supplies had been handed over to the Hubei Charity Federation in Wuhan, China.

In light of the heightened concern on the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in India, the country has been placed under complete lockdown for 21 days. Authorities have asked citizens to maintain strict social distancing to cut the spread of the virus outbreak.

As of 7:30 PM on Sunday, around 987 people across India have been reported to have contracted the COVID-19 disease, as new cases were reported in Maharashtra, Jammu & Kashmir, and Kerala on this day. The virus has affected around 681,706 people worldwide. The global death toll has hit 31,882, according to the COVID-19 statistics center at the John Hopkins University