As Africa braces itself for the peak in COVID-19 cases, the continent is launching the Africa Medical Supplies Platform, an innovative marketplace to enable all African governments to access critical supplies, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Wednesday.

While the continent is scrambling to get supplies, many African countries buy goods with resources largely obtained from multilateral agencies, President Cyril Ramaphosa noted.

President Ramaphosa was speaking in his capacity as the Chairperson of the African Union (AU) during a virtual Extraordinary China-Africa Solidarity Summit against COVID-19, co-hosted by the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the AU.

"The economic global economic downturn has dealt a severe blow to the African continent, as it has the rest of the world," President Ramaphosa acknowledged.

The President has also expressed gratitude on behalf of Africans to China's President Xi Jinping, and the government and his people for their generous donation of personal protective equipment and other medical assistance that has been provided to our continent.