By Omar Sabally
The Ambassador of People’s Republic of China in Banjul, H.E. Ma Jianchun is of the belief that they are not far from the end of the struggle with the coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) outbreak.
“We are not far from victory”, the Chinese chief diplomat to this West African nation, recently told members of the press who gathered at the Chinese Embassy in Bilijo for a press conference.
The mission was updating the media on developments regarding the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) as well as the ongoing crusade to contain the outbreak that had already caused loss of lives and sent fears across the globe.
The PRC’s top envoy used the press conference to apprise the gathered members of the media on the coordination and cooperation between the Asian economic giant and the small West African nation, in preventing an outbreak of the virus in The Gambia.
H.E. Jianchun assured that the Chinese government considers the health of foreigners, including Gambians, living in China, as equally important as that of Chinese citizens. He maintained that active measures had been taken to prevent foreigners living in China from being infected by the coronavirus. The Ambassador further reported that enormous efforts had been made to meet their basic life needs during this trying period of time.
Ma Jianchun also expressed sadness over the loss of human lives due to infection, and empathized with the grieving families and friends. He also expressed optimism that they are already on the winning side, as positive developments have been taking place. He noted that in the past month, they have worked closely with the Gambian government and its development partners to prevent the outbreak and ensure the health of Gambians at home.
The diplomat disclosed that, to complement Gambia government’s efforts in preventing COVID-19 and in strengthening public health system, they have prepared a batch of medical equipment and supplies granted by Chinese government which arrived at the Banjul Port two weeks ago, and would soon be handed over to the Gambia’s Ministry of Health.
“To our relief, as of today, no Gambian national has been infected. And the Gambian government followed WHO’s advice, took proper preventive actions while staying away from any unnecessary trade and travel restriction”, the Ambassador told journalists.
During this arduous battle, the Gambian government and people had been demonstrating sympathy, solidarity and support to China, acknowledged Jianchun. He pointed out that the COVID-19 is not yet considered a “pandemic” by the WHO, adding it’s not an “incurable” disease, and it’s not difficult to prevent, especially for countries and regions far away from the epicenter, as long as basic preventive measures are taken.
However, the Chinese Ambassador opined that the novel coronavirus is not a “Wuhan virus”; it is not a “China virus”, that no evidence has shown that the epidemic came from “Chinese people’s dinning tables”. He also intimated that it’s not constructive to scare and divide people at this moment, cautioning that, “doing so is not helpful at all”, for the prevention and control of the outbreak.
It could be recalled that in December 2019, a few people were diagnosed of pneumonia caused by unknown factors in Wuhan, capital city of central China’s Hubei Province.
The disease was later proven to be fairly infectious and drew people’s attention. At the end of the same month, China’s National Health Commission sent experts to Wuhan to handle the disease.
It was later found out that this pneumonia has a long incubation period, which won it time to transmit from unconscious patients to more people before people knew it.
As more people were diagnosed of this pneumonia in January 2020, stronger measures began to be taken to understand and control it.
In the first week of 2020, Chinese experts found out that the disease was caused by a new type of coronavirus. Another week later, they completed genetic sequencing of the virus, and shared the data with the international society.
Under the leadership of H.E. President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government built a nationwide prevention and control system, and carried out a series of effective measures step by step to contain the outbreak.
According to statistics, up till now, more than 80% of all infected people are within Hubei province, and among them over 2/3 are in Wuhan city, a metropolis of over 10 million residents.
To complement Wuhan’s efforts in providing medical services to the suddenly increased number of patients, 217 medical teams and over 25,000 medical staff from across the nation, and also many military medical personnel, have been mobilized to Wuhan and other seriously affected places in Hubei province, it’s been gathered.
Abundant medical supplies including masks, protective suits and safety goggles, have been transported to the epicenter as well.
While support from other places are coming, two prefabricated emergency hospitals were said to have been built in the outskirt of Wuhan city within half a month; 2,600 beds; the makeshift hospitals have also been set up in public indoor stadiums in Wuhan, largely increasing the city’s capacity of accommodating patients.
Besides these measures, in line with the instructions from the central government, 19 Chinese provinces have been tasked to provide comprehensive assistance in combating the outbreak to 19 most seriously affected cities of Hubei Province in a one-on-one manner.
It’s also been said that a national expert team has also been established to push forward scientific research on the novel coronavirus, so as to help more effectively control the outbreak and treat patients.
With all these material and human resources put in place, Hubei province has completed the testing and confirmation of all accumulated suspected cases, and is now focusing on treating patients.
To prevent COVID-19 from further spreading, from January 23 on, Wuhan began a temporary city-wide quarantine, and some other cities, mostly in Hubei province, later on adopted similar measures at various levels of rigor according to how badly they were affected.
In quarantined cities, sufficient food, clean water and daily necessities are said to have been always made available to all people.
