Donations in China to combat virus over 10b yuan

Charitable donations in China to combat the novel coronavirus epidemic have reached more than 10.1 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) as of Thursday midnight, the China Charity Alliance said on Friday.

Chinese enterprises have donated more than 2.2 billion yuan by Thursday, with internet giant Alibaba contributing 1 billion yuan, and Baidu and Tencent each donating 300 million yuan to combat the epidemic, it said.

Donations from social charity organizations amounted to 287 million yuan by Thursday, the alliance said.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has called on more charitable donations to help prevent and contain the epidemic on Jan 26.

The alliance called on charitable organizations to collect goods and raise money according to laws and regulations, strengthen information disclosure and be open to public scrutiny.