GABORONE, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Botswana will forever cherish and appreciate the cooperation that has existed between the southern African country and China in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, an official said Tuesday.

Botswana has benefitted immensely from the Chinese government and individuals in fighting the disease, Hon. Sethomo Lelatisitswe, Botswana's assistant minister of health and wellness, told Xinhua.

When the pandemic was first reported in China at the tail end of 2019, Lelatisitswe said Botswana donated 5,000 U.S. dollars to assist China's fight against COVID-19.

Botswana made the donation "because of the true 45-year-old friendship that exists between the two nations," and the gesture was aimed at ensuring that "our friends are safe from the disease," said Lelatisitswe.

Little did Botswana know that it was going to receive more donations from China when the disease became a global pandemic affecting almost every country on Earth, he said.

After the first confirmed case in Botswana was recorded in March last year, China provided a lot of support to "our relatively weak health systems when it came to dealing with the pandemic," he said.

China donated personal protective equipment (PPEs), ventilators, surgical masks, medical gloves, isolation shoes, extraction kits, sanitizers as well as technical assistance to health authorities to implement protocols aimed at curbing the spread of the disease, he said.

"Botswana will forever cherish the assistance from China. PPEs are crucial in the prevention of the spread of the disease, we really appreciate the good gesture," he said.