XI: COOPERATION, SOLIDARITY KEY TO CONTAGION FIGHT

As the novel coronavirus pandemic has run rampant globally, President Xi Jinping's unremitting call for solidarity and cooperation to stem the spread of the contagion has greater relevance to coping with the common threat the world is facing, officials and experts said.

The unprecedented global public health crisis caused by COVID-19, which is a powerful reminder of the interconnectedness and vulnerability of humanity, has made Xi's vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind more significant and urgent, they said.

An article by Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, on global solidarity and cooperation to combat the COVID-19 pandemic was published on Thursday in the Qiushi Journal, the flagship magazine of the CPC Central Committee.

Solidarity and cooperation are the most powerful weapon against the disease, the article said.

As the outbreak is spreading worldwide, posing an enormous threat to life and health and bringing a formidable challenge to global public health security, the article said, it is imperative for the international community to strengthen confidence, act in unity and work together in a collective way.

Viruses respect no borders, and epidemics do not distinguish between races, it went on, adding that this global public health emergency has driven home the urgency and imperative need to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

Xi's article came as confirmed cases of COVID-19 have exceeded 2 million worldwide, with the death toll surpassing 130,000.

China has brought the domestic outbreak under control through massive, nationwide efforts and enormous sacrifices, but it still faces risks from imported cases of infections.

Since the onset of the outbreak, Xi has engaged in intensive discussions with more than 30 world leaders through meetings, telephone conversations and correspondence to promote international cooperation on combating the virus, as he stressed on various occasions that the virus can only be defeated when the international community fights in unity.

"Through these interactions, Xi demonstrated China's firm and sincere commitment to solidarity with the whole world, boosted global confidence, and led the way for international cooperation against the outbreak," State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in an article also published in the Qiushi Journal on Thursday.

China upholds the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity, Xi's article said, noting that the Chinese government has acted in an open, transparent and responsible manner.

China released information on the epidemic to the World Health Organization and relevant countries and regions soon after the novel coronavirus broke out in Wuhan, Hubei province, in January. It speedily identified the genome sequence of the virus and shared it, and it provided timely updates on the outbreak to the organization and relevant countries and regions.

While working closely with the WHO, it contributed $20 million to the United Nations body to help it coordinate efforts in the fight against the pandemic.

Wang said that enhancing international cooperation in fighting COVID-19 is a telling testament to China's role as a responsible major country and its commitment to building a community with a shared future for mankind.

At the most difficult moment in its COVID-19 fight, China received assistance and help from a lot of members of the international community, and now China has also been supporting the global COVID-19 fight to the best of its ability.

WUHAN AMENDS DATA ON CONFIRMED COVID-19 DEATHS, CASES

The death toll caused by COVID-19 in Wuhan has been amended to 3,869 by April 16, and the confirmed infections total 50,333, according to a notification released by the Wuhan epidemic prevention and control center on Friday.

The fatalities are up by 1,290 compared with the previous reported figure of 2,579, and the number of confirmed cases saw a small increase of 325.

The notification said the increase was due to a comprehensive examination and verification of figures from various departments such as funeral parlors, medical institutions, public security authorities and communities in Wuhan, the city hit hardest by the novel coronavirus in China.

In the early stage of the outbreak, a rapid rise in number of patients and quick spread of the disease overwhelmed the city's medical system, making data collecting difficult.

Now the transmission of the disease has been basically contained and the lockdown of the city been lifted, which makes it possible to look back and comprehensively reexamine the data to ensure its accuracy, according to an official in charge of the matter.

Such a practice is based on relevant Chinese laws and regulations and conducted under the principle of "being responsible to history, the people and the deceased", the notification said.

In late March, the Wuhan headquarters established a special group working on data verification, which has extensively examined and closely compared statistics from various sources to make sure every single person affected is counted.

The verification found that some data reporting was delayed or was not accurate in the early stage of the outbreak, so the numbers should be amended according to relevant Chinese laws and regulations, the notification said.

In the early stage, the capability of nucleic acid testing and medical resources was very limited in the city, so some patients died at home without being treated. Medical staff was too busy to treat patients so there had been some delayed reporting. Also, as various types of medical institutions were used to admit COVID-19 patients, a few of them had not been linked with the online direct reporting system.

These all resulted in the inaccuracy of initial statistics, according to the notification.

GDP CONTRACTS 6.8% DUE TO ECONOMIC DISRUPTION

China's GDP contracted by 6.8 percent year-on-year during the first quarter of the year as the COVID-19 outbreak interrupted economic activity, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.

Economic and social situation maintained overall stability and stood the test of outbreak, with economic indicators having improved in March as work resumption accelerated, the bureau said in a statement.

Industrial output declined by 8.4 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, recovering from a 13.5 percent contraction in during the first two months, according to the NBS.

The contraction of retail sales narrowed to 19 percent year-on-year in the first three months, versus 20.5 percent of the Jan-Feb period.

Fixed-asset investment dropped by 16.1 percent during the January-March period, compared with 24.5 percent in the first two months.

Surveyed urban unemployment rate nationwide was 5.9 percent in March, down by 0.3 percentage points from February.

JAPANESE MOVED AS CHINA REPAYS FAVOR

When the chief of a Japanese youth association raced to get donated face masks to China's Hubei province in January, he could have never imagined that the favor would be repaid so soon.

Keizo Honda, secretary-general of the Japan Youth Development Association, or JYDA, said his organization subsequently ended up running out of masks amid a shortage in Japan after the coronavirus spread in the country. That predicament forced the JYDA to halt its operations.

"We did not expect at all that the virus would spread so fast, and now in Japan, one can hardly get a mask," said Honda, wearing a cloth mask.

The JYDA, an organization that helps Japanese students to study abroad, also serves as the secretariat for the body administering the HSK Chinese-language proficiency test in Tokyo. The examinations scheduled for March and April had to be canceled because of the virus outbreak and the shortage of masks.

Now, the donations from China have started to pour in.

On Tuesday, the first batch of 3,000 masks was sent to Honda's office. Delivering them was Tian Pujun, founder of the Chengli Academy, a foreign-culture experience provider for Chinese entrepreneurs.

"Chinese always say the grace of dripping water should be reciprocated by a gushing spring and I am doing this on behalf of the many friends behind me that want to repay this Japanese organization for their gesture earlier," Tian said.

Not long ago, pictures of the boxes of donations that Honda sent to Hubei province−then the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak−went viral on Chinese social media.

All the boxes came with a line of classical poetry from the Tang Dynasty: "Mountains and rivers apart, we share the same winds and moon under the same sky".

Photos of the donation attracted more than 170 million views on social media platforms such as Weibo and WeChat.

ONLINE TCM PLATFORM ESTABLISHED TO ASSIST IN GLOBAL PANDEMIC FIGHT

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads quickly around the world, Beijing municipal authorities are making efforts to help people overseas use time-tested treatments of traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM, to prevent and treat the disease.

There is no known cure or vaccine for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 1.96 million and killed more than 126,000 people in 213 countries, areas or territories worldwide as of Thursday, according to the World Health Organization.

As mainstream treatments focus on relieving the symptoms, TCM can help because it generally works on boosting the human immune system to fight off the virus, industry people said.

The Beijing Municipal Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine has jointly developed with multiple municipal departments a Chinese-English bilingual online platform−the Beijing Remote Health Service Platform−to share with the world China's experiences of fighting the disease using TCM.

Featuring official TCM guidelines on COVID-19 prevention and control, online consultations and health product information, the platform is accessible to overseas Chinese and Chinese students as well as foreigners who follow the WeChat account "Beijing Remote Health Service Platform".

The platform incorporated resources from 23 overseas Chinese medicine academic organizations, and more than 10 Chinese medicine, logistics, trade and other related companies. They cover 23 countries with 157 overseas branches, 24 overseas TCM clinics and 41 overseas respondents who can always serve users of the platform.

Through the platform, users could learn about TCM and official guidelines on disease prevention and control through video and texts, consult hundreds of TCM practitioners from the four top TCM hospitals in Beijing, and search for information where and how to get TCM treatments they need.

TESTING CAPACITY FOR COVID-19 TO BE BOOSTED

A meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday underlined the importance of bolstering testing capacity for COVID-19 and its antibodies while enabling more people to obtain tests to consolidate the outcomes of the country's epidemic containment.

The leading group of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on responding to the novel coronavirus outbreak said the country cannot afford any complacency in the face of the still arduous task of containing the illness, with the threat including infections imported from overseas and domestic occurrences in certain areas.

In a statement, the group urged local authorities to fully assume their responsibilities with a stronger sense of urgency and ensure that key groups from key areas can be tested across the board.

Communities and public venues must adopt scientific, targeted containment measures on a regular basis and employ closed-loop management involving screening, diagnosis, reporting and isolation measures after an outbreak is detected.

The group also called for a higher level of mental health support for individuals placed in isolation, saying that areas with clusters of infection must spare no effort to find the cause of the spread and cut the path of transmission.

Authorities must prioritize efforts to close gaps in containment measures at hospitals, ensure the protection of medical workers and prevent cross-infection, it added.

The Chinese mainland has seen a rise in the number of domestic cases this week as Guangdong province reported five local cases, Heilongjiang reported four and Beijing three, in addition to the 34 cases imported from overseas on Wednesday.

The meeting also instructed provincial authorities in border areas to come up with more targeted measures to refine containment plans and ensure different policies are enforced in different cities.

The country will send more experts in disease control and prevention as well as medical workers, including experts on treating severe cases and respiratory diseases, to border areas and cities to improve their medical diagnosis and treatment capacities, the statement said.

The group also pledged stronger support in virus containment professionals and medical supplies so border areas can elevate preparations for quarantine and detection measures, isolation venues and temporary and designated hospitals.

The group called for local authorities to refine measures to help businesses resume operations with normalized containment measures in place and promote the normal flow of personnel and production elements between regions.

SHANGHAI DOCTORS SHARE COVID-19 LEARNINGS WITH FOREIGN PEERS

Shanghai pediatricians on Thursday evening shared their hands-on experience of treating COVID-19 child patients with their peers from the United States, Portugal, India and several African countries via a video conference.

Five experts from the Shanghai-based Children's Hospital of Fudan University, where child cases of COVID-19 in the city were treated, talked about their latest research results regarding the novel coronavirus, practices to prevent the spread of the virus and their experience with medical solutions and medications for child patients.

The Chinese experts, who specialize in different areas, including infectious diseases, surgical oncology, gastroenterology and medical affairs management, also answered queries from their overseas counterparts during the video conference which was hosted by the hospital and Fosun Foundation.

According to the Chinese experts, most child patients in China showed mild symptoms of respiratory diseases or common pneumonia during observation. They also found that most children became infected after at least one adult in the family was infected. In addition, the incubation period among children was on average 6.5 days, longer than the 5.4 days for adults.

"Through such discussions with overseas experts and doctors, we hope to contribute to better protection for the health of children around the world amid the pandemic," said Xu Hong, Party secretary of the Children's Hospital of Fudan University.

During the video conference, Isabel Vaz, CEO of Portugal's Luz Saude healthcare group, shared about the organization's experience in patient treatment and virus containment.

ROBOTS PLAY USEFUL ROLE IN ANTI-VIRUS EFFORT

Robots that can deliver food at hospitals, spray disinfectants and never get sick have emerged as helpful assistants in the fight against COVID-19.

At Gongren Hospital in Tangshan, Hebei province, an intelligent delivery robot was used to send food, medicines and daily necessities to wards, lightening the load of nurses and avoiding cross-infection between medical professionals and patients.

The robot is equipped with an autonomous navigation system that can lead it to a certain room and avoid obstacles.

In some places, including Hebei, such robots are used to patrol public areas to find people who are not wearing a mask and then reminding them through a loudspeaker that others can hear clearly.

Some are used for checking people's temperatures from a distance, thereby avoiding close contact from human staff members.

Other robots spray disinfectant in public places or wield equipment for urgent medical applications.

Tangshan, which boasts a research and manufacturing industry that gives birth to robots, has provided many of its automatic offspring to cities nationwide amid the COVID-19 epidemic to help combat the virus.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Our zeal works wonders when it seconds our propensity to hatred, cruelty, ambition, avarice, detraction, rebellion. - Michel Eyquem de Montaigne