As the number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases continues to rise across many countries, the global war against this pandemic has entered a critical stage. Chinese Internet companies are using their technological advantages to take the initiative in helping foreign countries in the battle against the pandemic.

Medical supplies donated by the Jack Ma Foundation are shipped to Africa. (Photo/Qianjiang Evening News)

500 ventilators and other large quantities of medical supplies have recently been transported from Ethiopia to the front line of the battle against the pandemic in more than 50 countries in Africa. This is the second batch of materials donated to Africa by the Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation in China.

In addition to ventilators, there are also 1 million sets of virus sampling equipment and extraction reagents, 200,000 sets of protective clothing and face masks, 2,000 forehead thermometers and 500,000 pairs of gloves.

Donating medical supplies has been one of the main ways for Chinese Internet companies to support the overseas battle against the pandemic. Earlier, medical supplies donated by Jack Ma, the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, to France and Slovenia were warmly received at the airport in Liege, Belgium.

According to statistics, to date, the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation have donated pandemic prevention and control materials to more than 100 countries.

Furthermore, Tencent, another Chinese Internet enterprise, has spent more than 1 billion yuan setting up a foundation to help fight against the COVID-19 pandemic at home and abroad. Recently, 7.7 million units of medical supplies purchased by Tencent have also been shipped to more than a dozen countries affected by the pandemic, including Italy, Iceland, Portugal, Malaysia and the United States.

It is worth noting that Chinese Internet enterprises have used their advanced technology in providing this assistance.

Baidu Research, for example, has opened the linear time algorithm LinearFold and the world's fastest RNA (ribonucleic acid) structure prediction website free of charge to pandemic prevention centers and scientific research centers worldwide, in a bid to improve novel coronavirus RNA spatial structure prediction speed and greatly shorten the waiting time for test results.

Meanwhile, the United Nations officially announced that Tencent has become its global partner on March 30, providing comprehensive technical solutions for the 75th anniversary of the founding of the UN.

The UN will also hold thousands of online meetings through the company’s applications such as Tencent Cloud Conference and Enterprise WeChat.