Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma to send 1 million masks to U.S., plus testing kits

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma is sending aid to the United States. 

The Alibaba co-founder committed to sending 1 million medical masks and 500,000 coronavirus testing kits to the U.S. on Chinese social site Weibo on Friday. It’s being done through the Jack Ma Foundation. In case you only speak English, a translated version of the announcement was posted to Twitter at the same time.

“Drawing from my own country’s experience, speedy and accurate testing and adequate personal protective equipment for medical professionals are the most effective in preventing the spread of the virus,” the Ma Foundation’s statement said.

The U.S. has struggled to adequately test people for the potentially deadly virus since it became a major concern earlier this year. An investigation by The Atlantic found that U.S. testing lagged far behind other countries such as South Korea. So testing kits will probably be welcome. 

The same goes for medical masks, which can help prevent the spread of coronavirus among medical staff. There’s a general shortage of supplies like masks in the U.S. right now. Ma, who has a net worth of about $40 billion, can hopefully reduce the stress on the system at least a little bit.