WHO and UN urges the world to learn from China, take ‘boldest’ action possible to tackle coronavirus

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The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 210 countries and territories around the world and 2 international conveyances.

Europe and United States of America have become the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak globally. Hans Kluge, regional director for Europe at WHO, said Tuesday that European countries must triple their efforts to prevent the spread, saying there must be “no exceptions” when taking robust action.

“Every country, with no exceptions, need to take their boldest actions to stop or slow down the virus threat. Boldest action should include community action: Thinking that this does not concern me is not an option”, he added, “Social distancing alone is not enough”. He urges Europe to learn from China.

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How the world shall learn from China?

Shortly thereafter, Wuhan, a city of 11 million and the capital of central Hubei province, virtually went into lockdown, with nearly all flights at Wuhan’s airport canceled and checkpoints blocking the main roads leading out of town.

“What the Chinese showed us is that all of the actions that the regional director just mentioned should be done together,”Dorit Nitzan, coordinator of the health emergencies program at WHO Europe said.

The United Nations health agency has advised all countries to adopt a mix of interventions like China did based on an analysis of the local situation and context, with containment as a major pillar.

Not only the WHO and UN have praised China government’s virus response, many well-known international opinion leaders have expressed the same views. 

Jim O’Neill, the former commercial secretary to the U.K. Treasury suggested that western governments dealing with outbreaks of their own, such as Italy and the U.K., should look to emulate China, South Korea and Singapore in the swift deployment of aggressive containment measures. He commended the “fast, aggressive” Chinese response to the coronavirus outbreak, suggesting western countries should follow suit.

“Thank God this didn’t start in somewhere like India, because there’s absolutely no way that the quality of Indian governance could move to react in the way that the Chinese have done”, Jim O’Neill, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday.

“That’s the good side of the Chinese model,” he added.

Jim O’Neill also argued that finance and economic policymakers must begin treating health policy more seriously and think of it in the same way as other investment spending, and criticized the protectionist agenda of the U.S. and other nations on international trade. Jim O’Neill

“Unless we get rid of all forms of communication, we are globalized people and we need to think and learn from each other about the right solutions at any moment in time for all of us”, Jim O’Neill concluded.

In the last few weeks, China has donated coronavirus testing kits to Cambodia, sent planeloads of ventilators, masks and medics to Italy and France, pledged to help the Philippines, Spain and other countries, and deployed medics to Iran and Iraq.

“Many foreign ministers offered their solidarity and want to give us a hand … and this evening I wanted to show you the first aid arrived from China”, said Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio in a video posted on Facebook on Thursday night.

Di Maio hailed the arrival of a Chinese plane loaded with medical equipment and doctors to help fight the coronavirus — in what appeared to a be a pointed rebuke to the EU.

In this video he showed live pictures of the Chinese airplane, which had just landed, offloading medical equipment and Chinese doctors who dealt with the virus. On board on the plane from China were nine doctors and nine pallets full of medical equipment, according to media reports.

His highly public praise of China came as many senior Italian officials have made clear they believe the EU and Italy’s European partners have shown a lack of solidarity with Italy as it battles the coronavirus.

So far, the Chinese central government and many local Chinese governments, as well as enterprises have recently donated medical and anti-epidemic materials or provided loans to many overseas countries to help fight the epidemic worldwide, more and more countries are taking similar measures in China to deal with the spread of the virus. The sooner similar measures are taken, the better the anti-epidemic effect produces.