The U-Mask medical face mask being donated by the South African manufacturer to the People's Republic of China through the Chinese embassy can be seen, 2 February 2020, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles
The world is besieged by a virus which knows no borders, according to Chinese embassy spokesperson Du Ping, and as numbers around the globe continue to mount, Du said the spreading of Covid-19 was “beyond imagination”.
“This is indeed a global battle between man and nature. No country can fight the virus alone. It is only unity, solidarity and cooperation to build a community with a shared future for mankind that can defeat Covid-19,” added Du.
Du added: “It is with a heavy heart that we note the increase of the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus within South Africa and in other African countries. The number of Covid-19 confirmed cases in the world at large has been rising at an alarming rate. The WHO has already characterised it as a global pandemic.
“As of Monday, a total of 30 African countries, including South Africa, reported 384 confirmed cases of Covid-19, which translates to over half of the African continent. According to the relevant health authorities and media reports, most of the confirmed cases are imported ones, but none are related to travel history to and imported from China.”
Facts, said Du, “tell the truth and speak loudly”.
She explained that the Chinese government had taken the most stringent and decisive control measures to contain Covid-19 in China and to prevent the virus from spreading out of China. This had made a great contribution to the global response to the pandemic.
“This is China’s responsibility and commitment to protecting the lives and health of the people of China and all peoples around the world at all expense and sacrifices. After over one month of unremitting efforts, the spread of Covid-19 in mainland China has been brought under effective control. In the past few days there are very few or no more confirmed cases happening locally in mainland China with the massive population of over 1.4 billion people.”
On March 17, mainland China reported 16 new cases of confirmed infections, of which 12 were imported into China from overseas.
China, said Du, was “ready to provide assistance within our best capacity to help Africa and other friendly countries, strengthening joint African prevention and control cooperation and based on bilateral channels to contain and defeat Covid-19 at an early date”.
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