Billionaire Joe Tsai, who co-founded Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has donated ventilators and masks to New York to help with the coronavirus pandemic.
Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai and his wife, Clara Wu Tsai, donated 2.6 million masks, 170,000 goggles and 2000 ventilators to the state of New York, which is considered the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the US.
Tsai is a Canadian Taiwanese businessman and philanthropist who owns the Brooklyn Nets basketball team and Brooklyn's Barclays Center arena in New York. He co-founded the Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba with Jack Ma.
The equipment were divided into two shipments, with the first arriving on Thursday at Newark Liberty International Airport and the second arriving on Saturday at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
In an interview, Clara Tsai said: "We kept hearing cries for (personal protective equipment) from our community and wanted to help." She explained that the state will allocate the second shipment but "it's our intention to help the most underserved institutions."
She mentioned Jacobi Medical Center and Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx, and Elmhurst Hospital in Queens as the institutions they thought might need the supplies the most.
During a daily coronavirus briefing, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo mentioned the donations. He said: "I want to thank Joe Tsai, and Clara Tsai, and Jack Ma from Alibaba," said Cuomo, during a Saturday briefing. "This is a big deal and it's going to make a significant difference for us."
Aside from the Nets and the Barclays Center, the Tsais also have considerable ties to the New York community through Clara's charitable organization, the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, which oversees causes including economic mobility in Brooklyn.
The first shipment of donations were distributed through the help of the Greater New York Hospital Association.
It included 300,000 surgical masks that went toward 11 New York City-area nursing homes, 70,000 medical goggles donated to 11 New York City-area nursing homes and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, and 1000 ventilators that were donated to the Mount Sinai hospital system.
Following Governor Cuomo's announcement that the state would be centralizing resource allocation, the Tsais are leaving the allocation of the second shipment to the state.
The second shipment included 1 million surgical masks and 1.3 million KN95 masks, 100,000 medical goggles and 1000 ventilators.
The KN95 is a mask produced in China that is similar in name as the N95 mask, which is considered the gold standard of respirator masks with its ability to filter out at least 95% of very small particles from the air.
The KN95 masks have received clearance from the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) on Friday. The FDA allowed its use as long as certain criteria is met, including evidence demonstrating that the mask is authentic.
New York, along with the rest of the US, is facing a shortage of ventilators, masks and other protective gear needed for healthcare workers to fight the virus.
Several companies have committed to producing these medical equipment, including Ford, which has partnered with 3M and GE Healthcare to manufacture respirators and ventilators.
Babcock International and Apple will also help in the campaign by manufacturing ventilators and face shields, respectively.
