Hisham Sarwar
There is an alarming surge in the number of coronavirus cases. The total surpassed 6,000 on Wednesday. Rich people and multinationals in China, the U.S. are fighting back against the outbreak by donating millions.
Many deep-pocketed people and companies around the world are donating. From the United States, Bill Gates with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $10 million to aid people suffering in China and Africa.
The money includes $5 million for international cooperation and for the treatment and vaccine development.
The richest man in China and founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma has reportedly pledged $14 million (100 million yuan) to efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine through his Jack Ma Foundation.
The move was announced by Alibaba that it will also establish a $144 million (1 billion yuan) fund to help hospitals buy sorely needed medical supplies in Wuhan, China.
Other Chinese tech giants such as Baidu, Tencent, Huawei, and ByteDance that are run by billionaires Robin Li, Ma Huateng, Ren Zhengfei, and Zhang Yiming, have are also coming on the front to help combat the coronavirus.
ByteDance, the company behind TikTok has also pledged $115 million (800 million yuan) to fund new research and help hospitals come up with the most advanced, effective vaccine to combat the virus.
