Alibaba co-founder and China's richest man joins other tech companies in donating funds to coronavirus mitigation efforts.
Jack Ma has announced that he has made a 100 million yuan ($14.5 million) donation through his charitable foundation to help scientists develop a vaccine for the deadly Wuhan coronavirus, according to a social media post (in Mandarin) by the Jack Ma Foundation.
The funds will be split between two Chinese government research organizations, who will receive 40 million yuan each, while the remaining 20 million yuan will go towards prevention and treatment efforts worldwide, the post said.
The donation comes only days after Alibaba said it would spend 1 billion yuan (in Mandarin) on medical supplies for hospitals in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, and Hubei province.
Tech Giants Donate
On Sunday, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced it was giving $10 million in aid to frontline responders in China and Africa to help contain the spread of the disease.
Other Chinese tech giants that have contributed towards coronavirus treatment include telecom equipment maker Huawei, e-commerce company Tencent, search engine Baidu, TikTok owner ByteDance and food delivery firm, Meituan-Dianping, according to the state-owned newspaper «China Daily».
The total number of confirmed deaths from the coronavirus in China stands at 170, with 7,711 infected patients and an additional 12,167 suspected cases as of end-Wednesday (30 January), according to China’s National Health Commission, «Reuters» reported.
