China's Alibaba foundation donates thousands of kits to help Angola fight COVID-19

APD NEWS

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Angola received Thursday thousands of kits from the foundations of Alibaba and Jack Ma to help the southern African country fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The donation includes 20,000 COVID-19 test kits, 100,000 masks and 1,000 level-three personal bio-safety suits.

The medical materials from China will increase laboratory response capacity by 20 times, according to Franco Mufinda, the country's secretary of state for public health.

The official, who was speaking at the 4 de Fevereiro international Airport in the capital Luanda, said that the country had only 1,000 test kits available and now has 21,000.

He said the Angolan government has been striving to empower other provinces to carry out COVID-19 tests, offer more ventilators and individual protection materials and increase laboratory capacity.

With three registered cases of COVID-19, the Angolan government declared on Wednesday a state of emergency in the country from Friday, as part of the measures to fight the pandemic.