China and Covid-19

The confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Pakistan has risen above 700 as of March 22 2020.

China has been fighting with Covid-19 since mid-December, 2019 and as of March 19, the new confirmed cases dropped to 0 in the whole country. The epidemic is under control and our efforts to fight the virus have achieved great success, but right now China is facing the risk of imported cases. We are willing to share some experience to prevent and control the virus in Pakistan.

Leadership and involvement of the government: since the outbreak of Covid-19, the Chinese government has adopted the most comprehensive and strictest prevention and control measures under the strong leadership of President Xi Jinping at the core, many of which have far exceeded the requirements of international health regulations.

President Xi made important instructions many times, and went to the front line of Beijing and Wuhan in February and March to inspect, investigate and guide the prevention and control work of the epidemic. He encouraged the Chinese people and brought confidence to the world, which showed the world China's firm determination and strong will to overcome the epidemic.

The Chinese government has taken a series of effective prevention and control measures in a timely and decisive manner and established a nationwide system to provide free medical services for Chinese citizens at all costs, which contributes a lot to preventing the epidemic from spreading worldwide. The preliminary success strongly proves that Covid-19 is preventable, controllable and treatable. The Chinese government is winning a key victory.

Rapid response: the Chinese government rapidly established an inter-departmental joint prevention and control system. The government mobilized nationwide resources to establish a comprehensive and three-dimensional system from the central to the local governments to prevent and control Covid-19. This included providing free medical services including test, isolation, and treatment for Chinese citizens.

Two temporary specialized hospitals were built in ten days in Wuhan, to provide sufficient medical resources for patients there and prevent the epidemic from spreading worldwide. Due to there being no vaccine and the fact that isolation is the only and most effective way to control and prevent the virus, the government of China took a quick decision to shut down Wuhan city and semi-quarantine major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai etc.

Public awareness: public awareness is needed to prevent and control the spread of Covid-19. All families in China were advised to avoid public gatherings and close contact with others and just stay at home, even during the Spring Festival, the most important festival for the Chinese. It is also helpful to wear masks when going outside, wash hands frequently and ventilate more.

The most important is the “Four Early”, which are early detection, early report, early isolation and early treatment. Every citizen in China has obeyed these instructions from the government and the advice of medical experts positively.

Collective participation of all society: when there's a disaster somewhere, people there will get help from everywhere across the whole country. China dispatched more than four thousand medical personnel from all over the country to assist Hubei, which greatly improved the capacity to treat patients who were critically ill. China urgently delivered medical supplies such as masks, protective clothing and drugs to the epidemic areas, and ensured the adequate supplies of living materials as well. All the residential communities were motivated to take the responsibility to supervise and govern the residents of their own. Numerous community workers and volunteers actively took part in the prevention and control work for the virus.

International cooperation: after the outbreak of Covid-19, the Chinese government kept the World Health Organization and relevant countries informed of the latest situation of the epidemic in an open, transparent and responsible manner. China has actively responded to the concerns of all parties and strengthened cooperation with the international community.

The Chinese medical experts identified the pathogen in just a week, and shared the gene sequence of the virus with all the parties in time. China has been developing vaccines with other countries around the world to control the epidemic. After the WHO declared the coronavirus as a “pandemic”, China has been working quickly with the relevant countries to jointly deal with the pandemic: share and exchange experience to deal with Covid-19; send medical teams to those countries and regions in need; provide assistance including medicines and other medical materials for epidemic prevention.

Since the outbreak, Pakistan has been providing strong support to China, for which we are deeply grateful and trying hard to guarantee the safety of every foreigner including Pakistani citizens in China in a responsible manner.

China will share its experience and donate more test kits and materials, and send medical teams to Pakistan, which will strengthen the public health cooperation between the two countries and promote a community of shared future. China is ready to join hands with our ‘iron brothers’ to fight against Covid-19 in Pakistan.

The writer is the consul general of China to Karachi.