South African communities receive medical supplies from China

CAPE TOWN,

   South Africa's Western Cape on Tuesday received badly-needed medical supplies from China amid the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the province, the epicenter of the virus in the country.
  

Albert Fritz, Minister for Community Safety for the Western Cape, received the supplies at a ceremony held at the Chinese Consulate in Cape Town.
  

The supplies included masks, gloves, hand sanitizers and other materials.
   Fritz thanked the Chinese Consulate and the
Chinese local community for making this happen.
  

The donation, he said, shows that combatting the pandemic is an international fight that entails the efforts of all countries to save humanity.
  

"We welcome all the efforts, all the contributions from the Chinese government and we are really grateful for it," Fritz said.
  

He said Western Cape is badly in need of medical supplies as the province is griped by the pandemic.
  

As of Wednesday, Western Cape recored 1,870 confirmed cases and 38 related deaths, which were the highest numbers among all the nine provinces.
   

Lin Jing, Chinese Consul General in Cape Town, said, "We need to exhaust our efforts to help our South African friends to fight against the virus."
  

"We can still remember that during our most difficult period fighting against the virus, our South African friends gave us very precious material and moral support which we will never forget," Lin said.
  

This is the time for China to give back, he said, adding that solidarity and unity are critical to confront the pandemic.
  

Also attending the ceremon was Gang Dong, representative from the South African Chinese Cultural Development Center. He said that since the outbreak of Covid-19 in South Africa, the Chinese community in the Western Cape has been mobilized to work together with the local community.
  

Led by the Cape Town Chinese Community Police Forum, the Chinese community managed to raise funds amounting 600,000 rand (about 30,000 U.S. dollars) to help the local government fight the virus.
  

"More efforts are being made by the Chinese community to make more contributions to the fight," Dong said. (Xinhua)