Chinese Embassy contributes to donation of 1500 Coronavirus Test Kits to Argentina Ministry of Health in March 2020 (Linked to Record ID#91387)

On March 17, 2020 – at a meeting between the Chinese Ambassador to Argentina, Zou Xiaoli, and the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández – the Chinese Embassy committed a batch of supplies to the Argentine Government to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The supplies were to be granted by a group of organizations consisting primarily of Chinese government institutions and state-owned enterprises.

The entire batch included the following supplies: 5,000 sets of protective clothing, 66,000 N95 masks, 130,000 medical masks, 2,000 goggles, 5,000 isolation suits, 20,000 pairs of gloves, 2,500 reagents (tests), 550 hand-held forehead thermometers, and 3 sets of temperature monitoring equipment.

The group of donors included the following organizations: the Hangzhou Municipal People's Government; the Xiaoshan District People's Government; the People's Government of Louta Town, (in the Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou Municipality); the China Shenzhen Mammoth Foundation; the BGI Group; the Chinese Embassy in Argentina; the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Argentina Branch; Bank of China, Buenos Aires Branch; COFCO Argentina Branch; China Communications Construction, Argentina Branch; National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm); Huawei Argentina; Goldwind Technology, Argentina Branch; and the Argentina-China Trade and Investment Promotion Association.

Then, on March 20, 2020, Argentina's Ministry of Health received 1,500 of the coronavirus nucleic acid rapid test kits committed on March 17.

The Chinese Embassy in Argentina, Shenzhen Mammoth Public Welfare Foundation, and the BGI Group (formerly Beijing Genomics Institute) each donated 500. The tests were manufactured by the BGI Group.

The Catholic University of Chile's Asian Studies Center estimates that all 1,500 tests were worth USD 30,000, while Harvard's Mask Diplomacy dataset estimates that the contribution of each donor - or 500 tests - were worth USD 30,000. AidData estimates the Chinese Embassy's contribution of 500 tests was worth about USD 4,865.00.

The tests donated to the Argentinian Ministry of Health were used to carry out testing in asymptomatic outpatients at the main stations of Plaza Constitucion, Retiro, and Plaza Once between April 24th and July 3rd, 2020.