China’s efforts to curb epidemic outflow effective: Expert

Beijing: China’s efforts to prevent the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic from flowing out of the country have been proven effective, a Chinese expert said Thursday.

So far, the number of confirmed cases reported overseas only accounts for less than 1 percent of the total number worldwide, said Wu Zunyou, an expert on epidemiology at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, at a press conference held by the National Health Commission (NHC), China Economic Net reported.

As of Wednesday, China had reported a total of 7,711 confirmed cases while the number of all cases reported outside the country stood at 68.

Wu cited the case of a woman in Shanghai who was diagnosed with the virus after returning from a business trip to Germany.

Before leaving for Germany, she had spent time with her parents who traveled from Wuhan to see her in Shanghai.

Upon learning the information, Chinese health authorities immediately contacted their German counterparts, which helped Germany take effective measures to prevent possible transmissions.

“This case shows that the Chinese government is responsible and that China’s response to the epidemic has been transparent,” Wu said,

adding that China is currently enforcing the toughest preventive measures and they are proven effective.

“We are confident that we can effectively curb the epidemic and eventually defeat it,” Wu said.

Since the epidemic broke out, China has maintained close communication with the World Health Organization (WHO), relevant countries as well as the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions to timely report on the epidemic and share the genome sequence of the new virus, said Mi Feng, spokesperson of the NHC, at the press conference.

China has also shared information with the United States in a timely manner, Mi said, adding that disease prevention centers of the two countries have maintained active technical coordination.

“China is fully confident in and capable of winning this battle against the epidemic,” said Mi. “We will do our best to reduce the risk of transmission.”

Mi said China will continue to step up information sharing with the WHO, relevant countries and the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions on the monitoring, prevention, treatment and risk evaluation of the epidemic.

“We will also actively collaborate with the WHO team of international experts and make concerted efforts to safeguard global health,” Mi added.