China will send medical experts to Ethiopia, Burkina Faso to better support African countries fight against COVID-19, and the Chinese experts will share experience, provide guidance and technical advice on epidemic prevention with medical and health institutions in the two countries, said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian. 

During Wednesday's press conference, the spokesperson said that China and Africa are good brothers and China has kept in mind the valuable support from Africa when the country was facing hard period in prevention and control work. 

He noted that China has paid close attention to the situation in African countries and provided the African Union and African countries with diplomatic ties with anti-epidemic materials in batches. 

Many Chinese provinces and cities, enterprises and private institutions are also actively providing anti-epidemic materials to Africa, he added, stressing that these efforts demonstrate the fact of building a closer community with a shared future between China and African countries. 

China is willing to strengthen cooperation with African countries to achieve the final win against the virus, Zhao said.

The death toll from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the African continent reached 816 as the number of confirmed cases hit 15,249 across the continent as of Tuesday, according to the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). 

The African Union, through Africa CDC, has already activated its Emergency Operations Center and its Incident Management System for the COVID-19 outbreak on January 27. 

The Africa CDC had also developed its third Incident Action Plan that covers the period from March 16 to April 15.