Lagos, Abuja and Ogun State got the highest number of medical relief materials donated to Nigeria by Chinese billionaire businessman and philanthropist, Jack Ma, in support of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Jack Ma’s relief materials total 130,912 items, comprising 100,000 ordinary face masks, 20,000 reagents for testing, 9,999 coverall gowns and 913 face shields. These have been distributed across different states, the Nigerian Centre for Disease and Control (NCDC) said.
Lagos, being the state most hit with the virus, got the highest number of relief materials, with a total of 30,439 items consisting of 27,678 face masks, 2,596 coverall gowns, and 165 face shields.
Abuja comes next having collected 16,182 items comprising 14,115 face masks, 1,906 and 161 coverall gowns and face shields.
Ogun got a total of 5,104 of the items, comprising 4,375 face masks, 671 coverall gowns and 58 face shields.
The states of Bauchi, Edo, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo and Rivers got 2,309 relief items each comprising 1,912 face masks, 291 coverall gowns and 26 face shields.
The remaining 28 states each got 1,500 face masks, 110 coverall gowns and 20 face shields. The states are Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba,Yobe and Zamfara.
The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation, owned by Jack Ma, had on March 22, 2020 donated medical supplies to Africa to aid the fight against the coronavirus pandemic which has infected over 700,000 people around the world.
The billionaire businessman donated to the African continent 5.4 million face masks, kits for 1.08 million detection tests, 40,000 sets of protective clothing and 60,000 sets of protective face shields.
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, got 130,912 of the donated items shared across its 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Meanwhile, Nigeria has recorded a total of 174 confirmed cases of the virus, including two deaths and nine discharged cases, as of 1:10pm Thursday, based on NCDC data. The country’s commercial centre, Lagos, has recorded the most numbers, with 91 confirmed cases, followed by Abuja with a total of 35 cases, Osun 14 cases, and Akwa Ibom five cases.
Oyo, Ogun, Edo and Kaduna States have recorded four cases each, while Bauchi has reported three, Enugu and Ekiti two cases each, and Rivers has only one case.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH & MICHAEL ANI
