http://www.bjreview.com MARCH 26, 2020 BEIJING REVIEW 13

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video posted on the Internet on
March 17 showed an unusually
intense farewell. People crammed
their balconies in a community in
Wuhan, Hubei Province, waving
and mouthing their gratitude through their
masks: “Thank you for reaching out to us.”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
The appreciation was for the medical
workers who had come from Tianjin in north
China to help out with the novel coronavirus
disease 2019 (COVID-19) treatment and
prevention and were leaving as the infection
had been brought under control.
On their way to the bus that would

take them to the airport, the overwhelmed

visitors waved back and said their farewell.

“Please stay strong,” urged one of them. “I

will come back to see this city when the dis-

ease is eradicated,” said another.

It was the Ķrst medical team from out-

side Hubei to leave. After the outbreak,

over 42,000 medical workers from across

the country came to Hubei and their

concerted efforts and dedication saw the

number of new cases go down. On March

19, no new case was reported in Wuhan,

a contrast to the peak period in February,

when the number reached more than 1,

on a single day.

It signaled the rescue medical teams

could finally leave one by one and the first

batch departed on March 17.

But though the situation is under control

in China, the disease has become a pandem-

ic, erupting in 159 countries and regions,

from Europe to the Middle East to Africa. By

March 18, 35 countries had declared a state

of emergency, heightening the need for the

international community to work together to

defeat the disease.

A shared community

“The outbreak is a test of our solidar-

ity—political, financial and scientific,”

World Health Organization (WHO) Director

General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

said. “We need to come together to fight

a common enemy that does not respect

borders, ensure that we have the resources

necessary to bring this outbreak to an end,

and bring our best science to the forefront

to find shared answers to shared prob-

lems.”

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign

Minister Wang Yi said on March 18 that

China will provide assistance within its

capacity to countries in need to fight

COVID-19, upholding the concept of one

human community with a shared future.

Europe has become the new epicen-

ter of the disease with Italy reporting the

second highest number of confirmed

cases and deaths after China by March

18. The difference, however, is that the
    fatality rate in Italy is nearly 8 percent,
    much higher than the 2.3 percent in
    China. This is partly attributed to Italy’s
    severely aging society, with the aver-
    age age of those who died being 81,
    while over two thirds had other medical
    conditions.
    “Italy asked to activate the European
    Union (EU) mechanism of civil protection
    for the supply of medical eTuipment for
    individual protection but unfortunately, not
    a single EU country responded,” Maurizio
    Massari, Italy’s Permanent Representative
    to the EU, wrote in an article. “Only China
    responded bilaterally.”
    China sent experienced medical work-
    ers to Italy along with medical supplies.
    Some of the medical personnel had worked
    in Wuhan and have a wealth of experience
    and understanding of the virus.
    About the medical assistance and ex-
    perts, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio
    said China sent masks and ventilators.
    “That’s what we call solidarity,” he said.
    Although WHO warned about COVID-
    when the outbreak grew in China and
    China put all its national resources at work
    to contain the virus, many European coun-

Adham Rashad Ismail, the World Health Organization’s representative to IraT, communicates with Chinese
medical team members in Baghdad, IraT, on March 10

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