XI'S CALL SETS RIGHT TONE FOR BATTLE

Amid the mounting risks the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak has brought to the world, President Xi Jinping's call for "an all-out global war" against the pandemic at the recent G20 Extraordinary Leader's Summit on COVID-19 has great relevance to addressing the global public health crisis.

The messages of solidarity and mutual assistance Xi sent at the videoconference for leaders of the Group of 20 countries on Thursday are the only way out for the world to prevail over the contagion and save the global economy from recession, observers said.

The virtual summit, the first of its kind in the history of the G20, is the first major multilateral event Xi participated in since the start of the outbreak. Xi has been using telephone conversations, correspondence and meetings with leaders of foreign countries and international organizations to strengthen coordination between China and the rest of the world on the fight against the virus.

"At such a moment, it is imperative for the international community to strengthen confidence, act with unity and work together in a collective response," Xi said at the summit. "We must comprehensively step up international cooperation and foster greater synergy so that humanity as one could win the battle against such a major infectious disease."

Xi's remarks came as China's epidemic control is continuously improving and the trend of restoring normal work and life is being consolidated. Globally, the virus has spread to more than 200 countries and regions. Over 616,700 people have been infected and the death toll is still rising rapidly, according to the World Health Organization. The economic toll is also climbing as more businesses and trade comes to a halt amid massive lockdowns.

Tom Fowdy, a British political and international relations analyst, said the virus is a global challenge which requires a global response as it does not discriminate in terms of nationality or culture.

Although some nations have endeavored to pin it on one specific country and seen opportunities in doing so, in practice the outbreak harms the humanitarian, political, and economic interests of every nation, Fowdy said.

China has always advocated international cooperation in the fight against the epidemic. It has been endeavoring to coordinate policies and share information and experiences with other countries and international organizations.

The country has offered aid to 89 countries and four international organizations to contain the epidemic, including donations of face masks or other medical equipment and as well as $20 million to the WHO.

China has also sent teams of medical experts to Iran, Iraq, Italy, Serbia, Cambodia and Pakistan as well as a joint task force to the United Kingdom to help those countries fight the epidemic. More medical teams are expected to be sent to countries in need.

China has also held video conferences with health experts from many international organizations and countries. It also shared technical documents, including epidemic prevention and control measures, as well as diagnosis and treatment plans, with more than 100 countries around the world and over 10 international and regional organizations.

Xi said during the summit that all nations must work together to build the strongest global network of disease control and treatment that the world has ever seen.

"China has set up its online COVID-19 knowledge center that is open to all countries. It is imperative that countries pool their strengths and speed up research and development of drugs, vaccines and testing capabilities in the hope to achieve early breakthrough to the benefit of all."

CONSUMPTION REBOUNDS AMID SIGNS OF RECOVERY

The consumption sector has been gradually recovering from the novel coronavirus epidemic, as the central authorities called for efforts to further release demand in the domestic market and boost household spending.

In mid-March, sales by key retailers monitored by the Ministry of Commerce increased 7 percent from mid-February. In the same period, the sales on some e-commerce platforms climbed more than 30 percent, according to the ministry.

Wang Bin, head of the ministry's department of market operation and consumption, said at a news conference on Saturday that the progress made in companies' work resumption could be attributed to the government's favorable policies and measures.

Though companies are still facing difficulties like a shortage of capital and personnel, the businesses will be further restored to normal as a series of policies are about to be implemented, according to Wang.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Friday presided over a leadership meeting to analyze the COVID-19 response and economic performance.

The meeting called for efforts to release demand in the domestic market, resume the operation of malls and markets in an orderly way, and ensure normal operation of the service sector, with effective prevention and control measures in place.

Efforts should be made to expand household consumption, reasonably raise public consumption and activate brick-and-mortar businesses while maintaining the prevailing trend of new online consumption.

Sales of major retailers have risen, while the prices of major daily necessities have declined recently, Wang said, citing data from the ministry.

By Friday, sales at large chain supermarkets and convenience stores had exceeded that of the same period last year. Over 95 percent of department stores had reopened by Friday, and their sales had grown and recovered to about 50 percent of that in the same period last year.

On Friday, the wholesale price of vegetables declined 16.5 percent from the end of February, and the price of pork fell 7.4 percent from its peak in mid-February.

The Ministry of Commerce has asked the regions deemed at low risk from the contagion to promptly remove their excessive control measures, in order to make life more convenient for the people.

The ministry will guide enterprises to implement classified measures to prevent and control the disease, and foster a safe environment for consumers, Wang said.

It will guide local bureaus to boost consumption based on local conditions, and restore the market to normalcy as soon as possible, he added.

Home quarantine has further fostered consumers' online shopping habits. According to a recent report released by the global measurement and data analytics company Nielsen, 89 percent of the surveyed said they will be more willing to make online purchases for daily necessities or fresh products once the pandemic is over.

TRANSPORT SERVICES RETURNING TO NORMAL IN WUHAN

After being apart for more than two months, Xia Fan finally saw her boyfriend at 2 am on Saturday at Wuchang Railway Station in Wuhan−the city that had been in a lockdown since Jan 23 due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

"He told me not to come as it's too early in the morning, but I spent the last two months waiting for his return from Shiyan. I could not bear one more second," said the 25-year-old nurse from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University.

"The moment I saw him, I felt so reassured. With more people and energy injected into the city, I believe Wuhan will recover soon," she said.

Over 260 inbound trains broke the two-month silence of the 17 train stations in Wuhan on Saturday−the first day of the country's major rail transportation hub reopen to passengers after the lockdown, bringing more than 60,000 people back to the city, according to China Railway Wuhan Group.

Though the number of trains arriving in Wuhan stands at only one fourth of the usual number, the reopening of the stations allows people to come back through the country's vast railway network, the company said, adding that there will be an increasing number of inbound trains to take back more people.

From April 8, the stations in the city will begin their outbound train service as well, it added.

Wuhan is also going to restart civil aviation services as the virus outbreak continues to subdue.

From April 8, Wuhan Tianhe International Airport will resume all passenger and cargo flights on domestic air routes except to and from Beijing, while other airports across the province have already operated flights since Sunday, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Data from Qunar, an online travel service provider, showed that there are more than 30 domestic routes linking the cities of Yichang, Xiangyang, Enshi, and Shiyan in Hubei, and almost all of the tickets for flights on Sunday were sold out.

There are not many remaining tickets for the flights departing from Wuhan on April 8 either, which are all full-price economy class, it added.

With Wuhan lifting its travel restrictions in an orderly manner, its cargo and logistics transportation is also resuming. On Saturday, a China-Europe freight train carrying 50 cargo containers left Wujiashan Railway Container Station in Wuhan en route to Central Europe for the first time since the outbreak began.

Nearly 90 percent of all goods aboard were produced locally in Wuhan, including 166.4 metric tons of medical supplies such as medical fabrics, as well as auto parts, electronics and telecommunication cables, according to China State Railway Group.

The train is expected to arrive in the German city of Duisburg in about 15 days. The goods will then be transported to Germany, France, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland for pandemic control and construction projects.

The normalization of the China-Europe freight service serves as evidence that the city's logistics and production is gradually recovering and will become a strong backstop for commerce and trade, said Tu Shanfeng, board chairman of Wuhan Port and Shipping Development Group.

He added that more freight trains ferrying goods between the two regions will be in place in the coming days.

CHINA HEIGHTENING PUSH FOR MORE VENTILATOR PRODUCTION

China is stepping up to produce more ventilators to help the global fight against the COVID-19 outbreak, as the nation produces about one-fifth of the world's multi-function ventilators, the nation's top industry regulator said on Monday.

Xu Kemin, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said the overseas demand for multi-function ventilators is surging, and manufacturers in China are toiling day and night to meet the growing demand for their products.

"China has 21 multi-function ventilator makers and eight of them have obtained the European Union's compulsory CE marking," Xu said.

According to him, they have signed contracts for 20,000 multi-function ventilators, and many international orders are pouring in every day.

"Since March 19, these companies have provided more than 1,700 ventilators to overseas hospitals. That equals half this year's supplies to domestic hospitals," Xu added.

"One ventilator has more than 1,000 components, and some major suppliers of these parts are located in Europe. It is difficult to scale up production amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, and it is unrealistic to meet all demand."

IMPORTED CASES RAISE INCREASING CONCERNS

Health officials and experts are calling for people to remain vigilant against the novel coronavirus and are tightening controls on inbound arrivals and asymptomatic cases as the country still faces the risk of imported infections and the threat of asymptomatic carriers.

The Chinese mainland added 44 imported cases and one domestic case associated with an asymptomatic individual on Saturday, according to the National Health Commission. There were 54 new cases on Friday−all related to overseas travel−and 55 new cases on Thursday, one of which was transmitted locally.

As of Saturday, the number of imported infections nationwide had risen to 693 from 42 countries as the virus continues to rage around the world. Meanwhile, domestic spread of the virus has been basically contained, according to health officials.

Commission spokesman Mi Feng said on Sunday that seven countries made up 83.4 percent of all imported cases on the Chinese mainland.

"It is possible that another round of infection spread will occur as a result," Mi said, adding that sporadic domestic infections also pose risks.

In working to minimize the risk of a widening pandemic, authorities in China have already taken several measures to ramp up monitoring of returnees, reduce international flights and restrict entry for foreign nationals.

If the comprehensive response mechanism that entails proactive and prompt screening and quarantine can continue to be forcefully implemented, the chance of a fresh outbreak in China is slim, according to Zhong Nanshan, a renowned respiratory disease expert and epidemiologist.

"Based on the society-wide approach, new infections will be limited to a very small group, which will not amount to an outbreak. The prerequisite is to stay alert and actively test and isolate cases as some infected arrivals from abroad are highly contagious," Zhong told China Central Television on Friday.

Zhang Wenhong, leader of the Shanghai team of experts in the treatment of COVID-19 cases, also said that the main task of epidemic control for China at the moment is to curb the virus' spread from overseas. He said the task is "much easier compared with bringing the Wuhan situation under control in late January".

Zhang said there is no need for the public to be overly worried that the resumption of production in the country might trigger a reoccurrence of the epidemic.

"People don't need to be overly concerned as the country's fever clinic system and public health monitoring network still work at their highest capacity," he said during a live broadcast during which experts from home and abroad shared their experiences fighting the epidemic in different countries on Sunday.

PASSENGER TRAIN FROM JINAN TO GUANGZHOU DERAILS

A passenger train derailed in Chenzhou city of Central China's Hunan province at around 11:40 am on Monday after it ran into landslide caused by days of rainfall, according to the China Railway Guangzhou Group.

The second to six carriages of the train, T179, from Jinan, Shandong province, to Guangzhou, Guangdong province, derailed while fire broke out in the first carriage, the group, part of the China State Railway Group, the country's top railway operate, said via its official Sina Weibo account.

No fatalities were reported and rescue work was underway, it said.

Injured passengers and railway employees have been sent to hospitals and railway authorities are looking into the cause of the accident, it added.

SCHOOLS BEGIN TO REOPEN IN CHINA AMID STRICT MEASURES

China is taking strict preventive measures to ensure the safety of students and no secondary outbreaks of COVID-19 among them as schools begin to reopen.

As the coronavirus epidemic waned in China, many students in the final year of senior and junior high schools returned to school on Monday.

In northern China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, more than 370,000 students went back to school.

Wearing his school uniform, Qingel walked through the gate of Hohhot No 6 Middle School in Hohhot, the regional capital, while a door automatically took his temperature. He then walked on a designated lane towards the classroom.

Inner Mongolia has made necessary preparations for the reopening of schools to reduce the risk of infection, said Li Zhanfeng, deputy director of the regional education department.

Over 1,000 km away, in eastern China's Jiangsu province, students of grade 9 and 12 returned to school to prepare for entrance exams for senior high schools and colleges, respectively, after a long winter break, according to the provincial education department.

Bidding farewell to the long winter break, many students at Funing Middle School were queuing up for body temperature checks with a one-meter distance in between before entering the schools in the county of Funing.

Every classroom is well ventilated, and every class is dismissed at a different time to avoid group gatherings, said Qian Liyong, the deputy principal.

In Hohhot No 38 Middle School, shelves were placed outside the door of every classroom to provide disinfection sprayers, thermos bottles, cleaning cloths and other daily necessities.

The school has divided the final grades of high school and middle school into eleven and twelve classes, respectively, with an average number of fewer than 30 students in each class to avoid crowdedness, according to Zhao Dawei, with the school's student affairs office. Normally each class has more than 50 students.

In Funing Middle School, students and teachers are all required to wear masks and keep safe distances in class, according to Qian.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Only the weak are corrupted by power. The strong judiciously use it as a tool in service to others. - Jeffrey Fry