COVID-19 online seminar draws intl interest

Source: SRCA

An international seminar on fighting COVID-19 was held online on February 5, with public health experts and officials from 17 countries participating. 

The seminar was hosted by the Silk Road Cities Alliance, Secretariat of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center.  

Song Ronghua, initiator of the Silk Road Cities Alliance, said he hopes people exchange solutions on combating COVID-19 for the reference of other cities and share resources that can support global control of the pandemic.  

Ms. Ma Xiaochun and Mr. Jiang Xiaopeng introduced the current global epidemic situation, WHO's leadership in the global fight against the epidemic, and its contribution in constructing the healthy cities. In the face of the deteriorating epidemic, WHO involves in monitoring, learning, guidance, coordination, support, communication, supply, innovation and many other areas.  

At the same time, WHO is committed to strengthening strategic partnership with China in the field of global health. For decades, WHO has made continuous efforts to improve urban sanitation, build healthier and more liveable cities.  

Mr. Yerik Ashimov, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, said SCO member states have been united and strengthened collaboration to overcome the impact of COVID-19 on societies and economies, and he was positive of further cooperation between SRCA and SCO.  

Mr. Zhu Tongyu, director of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, said early tracking and quarantining of close contacts of COVID-19 patients was the key to Shanghai's success in preventing the spread of the virus in this megapolis, and the center is willing to cooperate with cities along the Silk Road in public health management.   

Prof. Giuseppe Rao said, since the outbreak of the epidemic, 2.5 million people have been infected in Italy, more than 90,000 people have died, and GDP has fallen by 8.6%. He said that the fight against the epidemic requires not only the formulation of laws and regulations, but also the efforts of local municipalities to ensure that there is an effective supply chain and logistics system. International cooperation among cities should focus on the digital technology and promotion of innovative smart cities. He also suggested to establish silk road fund to promote the recovery after the pandemic.  

Mr. Zohair Sabaghpour Azarian, Deputy of International Affairs of Municipality of Tehran, Iran, introduced the actions taken by Tehran city government to prevent and control the COVID-19 in the past few months included strengthening collaboration among the organizations and establishing an urban crisis agency to coordinate the related issues. 

Ms. Chen Dongmei shared the experience and countermeasures of Nantong city. In the face of sudden outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the whole city enjoyed the unified command, unified dispatch, unified action, concerted efforts. So far, they have still maintained the record of "zero death of confirmed cases, zero infection of medical staff and zero confirmed cases in the main urban area", which makes Nantong a true "safe island ". The prevention and control work has gone through three stages under the principle of scientifically study the epidemic situation and accurately implement the prevention and control strategy: The first was the emergency response stage, characterized by "the first level control and participation of all citizens". The second was the stage of regular prevention and control, characterized by "take regular prevention and control measures and combine the actions for both peacetime and wartime use". The third was the stage of precise prevention and control, characterized by "scientific prevention and control with classified strategies".   

H.E. Mr. Masood Khalid, Former Ambassador of Pakistan to China said, longer the pandemic lasts , more devastating its effects will be on global political and economic landscape apart from tragic human loss. While China was the first country to suffer this scourge, it was also the first country to successfully contain the virus. China has once again taken the lead and its vaccine has now started reaching different corners of the world. We in Pakistan are grateful to our Chinese friends for being the first country to provide the vaccine.   

As regards Covid 19 pandemic, all countries, big or small, have followed their respective national strategies to deal with the challenge. The Government of Pakistan established a National Command and Operation Centre, as a one window operation to collect, analyze the corona related information and strategize on nation wide basis. Its feedback is shared with the people on real time basis. Pakistan adopted a smart lock down strategy so as to minimize the impact on the livelihood of the people. As a result, Pakistan had a good recovery rate and a low death rate.   

Ms. Marta Piechocińska introduced the epidemic situation in Poland. As of February 3, 2021, there were 1,527,016 confirmed cases and 37,897 deaths. Since last October, the epidemic situation has increased to the most serious red zone, and the vaccination plan was launched at the end of December. During the epidemic, the government has allocated more than 30 million zlote for the purchase of medical equipment and personal protective materials, of which 7.6 million zlote came from the city's crisis reserves.  

Prof. Weisheng Zhou introduced, Japan is currently meeting the third wave of epidemic. More than 2,900 new cases increased on February 3, 2021, which is twice as much as the peak of the second wave. In order to prevent and control the epidemic, the government has adopted measures. Since the Japanese government has not disclosed the countermeasures for the Tokyo Olympics, it is not clear whether it will be held normally.   

Ms. Ng Yeen Seen, Founder of OpsHarapan in Malaysia said, since the outbreak of the epidemic, OpsHarapan has actively donated personal protective materials to Wuhan, supported 25 hospitals in Malaysia, and donated 70 tons of food to Sabah, Malaysia. At present, the Malaysian government only allows five basic economic sectors to operate in accordance with strict procedures, namely manufacturing, trade and distribution, plantations and commodities, construction and basic services. Malaysia's GDP has shrunk by approximately 4.5% in 2020. For this reason, the government has launched a short-term national economic recovery plan worth 35 billion ringgits to restart the economy.