HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, April 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An" or the "Group", HKEx:2318; SSE:601318) announced that Ping An and its Chairman Ma Mingzhe are now responding to the urgent needs of the British government by donating medical supplies to the United Kingdom (U.K.) with a total value of GBP1.1 million (approximately RMB10 million). The donation is an initiative in response to the Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Summit's call to support various nations in fighting the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The donated supplies include medical equipment such as COVID-19 diagnostic test kits, surgical masks, protective clothing, ventilators and safety googles, to help address the serious shortage of medical supplies in the U.K. The donation also includes technological support such as the COVID-19 smart image-reading system developed by Ping An, which can generate rapid and accurate analysis of Computed Tomography (CT) lung scans for each individual case within 15 seconds, with a 97% accuracy rate. This service can aid and support doctors' efficiency and accuracy in diagnosis.
In more detail, Ping An's medical supply donation to the U.K. includes 100,000 surgical masks, 100,000 pairs of gloves, 10,000 safety goggles, 10,000 hand sanitizers, 10,000 face masks, 10,000 COVID-19 diagnostic test kits, 4,000 sets of protective clothing and 15 respirators. The medical technological aid includes 1,000 sets of the COVID-19 smart image-reading system. In China, Ping An's COVID-19 smart image-reading system has supported more than 1,500 medical institutions in China, including Hubei Province, and has assisted doctors with analysis in over one million CT scans for more than 20,000 patients.
As early as 2015, China and the U.K. established a strategic partnership for the 21st century. Both countries have always worked together to help each other. During the fight against the pandemic this year, President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have spoken twice over the phone. The two leaders focused on reaching an agreement on strengthening cooperation in fighting the pandemic and exploring the establishment of a global health partnership. At present, the domestic COVID-19 situation in China is effectively under control, with China in the process of resuming work and production, as its economic and social systems are being restored in an orderly manner. With the current situation in the U.K. being severe and complex, the serious shortage of medical supplies threatens the safety of medical staff and the British people. With this donation, Ping An is supporting Britain's efforts in fighting the outbreak.
"A friend in need is a friend indeed," a Ping An spokesperson said. "Many parts of the world are facing a pandemic, and the situation in the U.K. is serious. The Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Summit has called on the international community to accelerate efforts to contain the outbreak. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in China earlier, countries around the world, including the U.K., have supported China in its fight against the epidemic. Ping An stands ready to fulfill its corporate social responsibility, using its advantages in insurance protection, financial services and healthtech to contribute to the international community's pandemic control efforts. Ping An believes that by working together with the international community, we will triumph over the pandemic."
Last week, Ping An also responded to the needs of the Indonesian government by donating USD1.5 million (RMB 10 million) of COVID-19 medical supplies, including 10,000 sets of safety goggles, 10,000 sets of COVID-19 diagnostic test kits, 150,000 swab kits, 200 infusion pumps, and 100 patient monitors. Medical technology support included 1,000 sets of the COVID-19 smart image-reading system and 10,000 AskBob medical artificial intelligence (AI) assistants. Previously, Ping An Good Doctor cooperated with Grab, the Southeast Asia ride-hailing service provider, to co-launch an online medical service platform, GrabHealth, to provide more than 10,000 daily online consultations.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic in China, Ping An has introduced several initiatives in terms of insurance protection, public welfare donations and medical services. To date, Ping An has donated more than USD20 million (RMB150 million) of supplies and cash. Ping An has also provided free insurance protection for frontline medical staff, journalists, police officers and volunteers. Ping An partnered with the Ming Yuan Charity Fund and has donated RMB18 million (USD2.5 million) to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences to support the Phase III clinical trials of COVID-19 drug remdesivir and other clinical trials to combat COVID-19.
Ping An's subsidiary Ping An Good Doctor, an online health platform, has cooperated with 62 provincial, municipal and regional governments to provide real-time online and phone consultations. Since the outbreak, it handled 1.72 billion platform visits. The Ping An Healthcare Testing Center was among the first batch of third-party medical institutions authorized by Hubei Province to carry out the Nucleic Acid Test (NAT), the primary reference for COVID-19 diagnosis. The center has also deployed mobile CT-imaging vehicles to perform 64-slice lung CT scans to screen and diagnose the novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia. The vehicles have conducted over 500 tests daily and over 22,000 tests in total since the end of January.
Ping An Smart Healthcare, the smart health care team of subsidiary Ping An Smart City, created the National Real-time COVID-19 Update System, covering 21 provinces and 31 cities. It provides smart epidemic forecasting for relevant national ministries and commissions as well as 15 provincial health committees, achieving more than 98% accuracy for one-day forecasts and 97% accuracy for seven-day forecasts.
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