The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation said Monday they will make a second donation of medical supplies to 54 countries in Africa to assist them in the fight against COVID-19.

Further batches of medical supplies, including 500 ventilators, 200,000 sets of protective suits and face shields and 500,000 gloves, will be distributed to the continent with the help of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and World Food Programme after arriving in Ethiopia.

This donation is among a number of aid initiatives from the Alibaba Foundation and Jack Ma Foundation to support the areas of the world most affected by the COVID-19 crisis, sourcing and delivering various types of medical supplies to Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Latin America.

In March, the foundations had announced their commitment to donating 100,000 medical masks, 20,000 test kits, 1,000 protective suits and 1,000 face shields to each of the 54 countries on the African continent.

Moreover, the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation are aiming to connect African medical professionals with doctors from China and around the world to collaborate online and exchange hard-earned lessons in the treatment and prevention of COVID-19.

This online platform is available on the website: https://covid-19.alibabacloud.com/. Through video conferencing and AI translation from and into 11 languages, the platform aims to build a virtual community of global medical professionals.