China on Monday deployed a team of doctors and donated a consignment of medical equipment to Zimbabwe to help the southern African nation’s fight against coronavirus.

“The Chinese medical experts will make a contribution to the battle … against the coronavirus,” Chinese ambassador Guo Shaochun said at Robert Mugabe International Airport after the plane bearing 17 doctors and equipment arrived.

“This is a very good reflection of the long-standing friendship between China and Zimbabwe,” Guo added.

The value of the donation which included personal protective equipment for frontline medical staff was not divulged.

Social Welfare Minister July Moyo said told the Chinese diplomat that “you have demonstrated that we are all-weather friends”.

“You are bringing professional medical staff who were on the frontline fighting Covid-19 in your own country,” he said adding the help “can only bolster our determination to fight this pandemic”.

Zimbabwe has recorded 36 cases of the coronavirus including four deaths.

Local doctors have warned that Zimbabwe’s health services are inadequate to deal with a coronavirus pandemic.

Coronavirus, which causes Covid-19, was first detected in China in December last year.