TikTok CEO Alex Zhu. Photo by John Phillips/Getty Images for TechCrunch, under Creative Commons license

Popular social app TikTok has pledged to donate $375 million for relief efforts set in place to contain the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The pledge consists of $250 million in funds, $100 million in ad credits for businesses, and $25 million worth of ads for vetted health organizations. $15 million from the funds has already been donated to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation, an announcement notes.

Out of the committed $250 million funds, TikTok says $150 million will go towards medical staffing, supplies, and relief for health care workers, $40 million for local organizations as well as $10 million to match donations from TikTok users, and lastly $50 million in grants to educators, professional experts, and nonprofits. The $100 million worth of committed ad credits will be provided to assist small and medium businesses to recommence operations ‘once economies are able to restart normal activity,’ TikTok says.

The remainder $25 million consists of TikTok ad-spaces that’ll be offered to selected NGOs, trusted health sources, and local health authorities, TikTok says. On top of its commitment, TikTok says it’ll “be actively seeking more ways to contribute, including identifying the most effective ways to allocate these remaining funds to support ongoing relief needs.”

“We understand that these are challenging times for everyone. Alongside businesses, governments, NGOs, and ordinary people across the globe stepping up in this critical moment, we are committed to offering the very best that we can to help out humanity.” a statement from TikTok read.

TikTok’s donation to the CDC Foundation would surely go a long way in helping hire hundreds of workers across state and local governments hard-hit by the coronavirus outbreak. Such workers are undeniably instrumental in helping contain the spread of the coronavirus disease, which is in turn undeniably instrumental in ensuring the return of full economic activities. The current economic slowdown stemming from the coronavirus outbreak has resulted in thousands of layoffs in the tech industry as well as tens of thousands across other industries. Tech companies that have recently laid off or furloughed employees include Eventbrite, TripActions, ClassPass, Kabbage, Bird, Yelp, RigUp and many more.