COVID-19: Corporations are pumping money as virus scare continue to surge

Health workers carrying out checks/ Image by Mercury News

Growing concerns caused by the spread of coronavirus across the globe has forced the world's elites and multinational corperations into committing funds to help health authorities find solutions before things get out of control.



Founder of Alibaba and China's richest man, Jack ma, will reportedly commit $14.4 million through his foundation, designating $5.8 million for two Chinese government research organizations working on a vaccine.

Earlier report by CNN also said the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, pledged to commit $100 million to help contain the outbreak of the disease.

Other multinational corporations making pledges toward combating the disease through provisions of medical supplies, relief materials, and equipments, include Alibaba, Tencent, Microsoft, Boeing, and Dell.


Alibaba created a $144 million fund to buy medical supplies for Wuhan and Hubei province, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, and it's offering AI computing power to research organizations searching for a vaccine or treatments.

Tencent, another Chinese giant, founded a $42.7 million fund for medical supplies for Wuhan.

Microsoft will contribute $142,400 to support relief efforts in Wuhan and Hubei province, according to the Financial Times via Axios.

Cargill, a Minnesota-based agriculture company, and Dell will both donate $284,800 to the Chinese Red Cross.




Boeing will give 250,000 face masks to aid workers and medical personnel in Wuhan and Zhoushan.

According to CNN, the Bill Gates and Melinda Foundation said in a statement Wednesday that its funds would be used to help find a vaccine for the virus, limit its spread and improve the detection and treatment of patients.



The organization said it would immediately direct $20 million to groups including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, which last week declared the coronavirus outbreak a global public health emergency.

The report also said funding by the organization will also be allocated to public health agencies in China and other countries affected by the outbreak.


The foundation is also focusing on countries in South Asia and Africa, where it says people have higher risks of contamination due to a lack of access to good health care. Up to $20 million will go to health authorities in these regions.

"The release of fast and flexible funding is intended to help multilateral organizations and national public health authorities rapidly scale up their virus detection capabilities and implement disease modeling analytics," the group said in a statement.