Taking the Responsibility

Beginning March 17, thousands of medical workers who gathered in Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, wrapped up their mission and began to leave the city to return to their homes. The move indicated China has made major achievements in fighting the coronavirus that has infected over 81,000 people and claimed more than 3,000 lives across the country in the past several months. Just a single case of registered indigenous-infected COVID-19 had been confirmed at the time of writing, a sharp contrast to the thousands of confirmed cases reported daily during the peak infection period.

The achievement did not come about overnight. China paid a heavy price for it.

After the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, with the world’s intricate network of transportation, the coronavirus spread rapidly across the globe. China actively shared its experience in fighting the pandemic and started to assist other countries in defeating a common enemy.

In its darkest hour, China received substantial support from the world community. Now, China is returning the favor. It dispatched medical teams to work in countries badly hit by the coronavirus such as Italy, Iran, Serbia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Iraq. The teams carried donations of medical supplies such as test kits, masks, protective suits and protective goggles, along with the expertise of the personnel, and, more importantly, the confidence of having defeated the coronavirus. China’s achievements show that the coronavirus can be prevented and controlled so long as scientific and appropriate measures are taken.

China’s hard work in containing the virus has bought time for other countries to cope with the pandemic. The coronavirus is a completely new virus. Chinese scientists quickly completed the sequencing of the virus genome, and shared the information with the WHO and related countries so that the world community could timely understand and take actions in preventing the disease. More importantly, China’s measures such as locking down cities, keeping social distancing, establishing makeshift hospitals and closing schools have proved effective.

In addition, China’s donations have reached countries in need. As of March 18, the Chinese Government has committed to providing assistance to dozens of countries such as Spain, Egypt, South Africa and Ethiopia. Efforts have been made to facilitate the countries to outsource medical supplies from the Chinese market. Meanwhile local governments, enterprises and NGOS have also stood up and donated medical materials to related countries. So far, China has made available seven editions of guidebooks of COVID-19 treatment and six editions of prevention guidebooks in several different languages.

Facing a raging virus, no country can survive on its own. Today, the world is increasingly becoming a community with a shared future, and countries are intertwined with each other in variety of ways. The only way to defeat the pandemic, therefore, is strengthening global cooperation, coordinating resources and supporting each other. CA