Saudi Arabia and China sign $265m deal to fight coronavirus

Jeddah - Yasmine El Tohamy - JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia and China have signed a $265 million agreement to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Kingdom’s National Unified Procurement Company (NUPCO) and China’s BGI group  inked the SR995 million deal for the provision of devices and supplies to fight against COVID-19 in Saudia Arabia.

The agreement signed between two companies, approved by Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, chairman of the Negotiating and Purchasing Committee and supervisor general of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief), and Chinese ambassador to the Kingdom, Chen Weiqing, will enhance Saudi Arabia’s virus detection capacity and contribute to the Kingdom’s fight against the pandemic.

BGI will provide the equipment for conducting 9,000,000 COVID-19 tests, and includes the provision of devices and supplies, with 500 experts, specialists and technicians conducting the tests.

“The large number of tests provided for in this agreement clearly indicates that the Kingdom is in a race against time to diagnose cases and to work to isolate them in a way that reduces the risks from this pandemic globally,” Al-Rabeeah said.

Ambassador Weiqing said: “Despite the distance between the two countries, the genes of solidarity, cooperation, friendship and mutual assistance are inherited in the traditional culture of both peoples, which makes the sincere friendship between the two peoples even stronger in these special and difficult times.”

The equipment will include the Huo Yan laboratory, a mobile modular air dome structure constructed to support screening and detection capabilities. The inflatable lab can be transported by air as standard freight on any commercial passenger plane.

“The Huo Yan laboratory is an important step toward cooperation between our two countries in fighting against the pandemic,” the ambassador said.

Six regional labs will be established under the agreement: 50,000 daily tests will be conducted to diagnose COVID-19 cases, conduct community based testing and will include a mobile laboratory with a production capacity of 10,000 tests daily — a number which can be doubled.

Chinese specialists will also train Saudi cadres and conduct daily comprehensive field tests and ensure their quality for eight months. They will also analyze the genetic map of some samples inside the Kingdom.

The agreement will also provide expertise to analyze the genetic mapping of samples in the Kingdom, and analysis of the community’s immunity mapping of 1,000,000 samples, which will have a great impact in supporting the state’s plans in managing the pandemic.

The agreement highlights the commitment of mutual assistance between China and Saudi Arabia, and will represent a start for the further development of health care cooperation. The project will enhance Saudi Arabia’s virus detection capacity and contribute to the fight against the pandemic.

The contract, one of the largest to provide diagnostic tests for the coronavirus in the world, is an addition to the Negotiating and Purchasing Committee’s award to a number of companies from the US, Switzerland and South Korea to purchase additional quantities of reagents and tests, bringing the number of targeted tests to 14.5 million, representing nearly 40 percent of the Saudi population.

“Viruses know no borders, and it takes solidarity and cooperation to defeat a pandemic. As the Chinese old saying goes, you present me with fruits, and I would reward you with a jade,” the ambassador said.