On April 10, a special video conference took place in the ancient city of Xi'an in northwest China, according to Xi'an Municipal Government. An expert team comprised of professors from the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University shared experiences of COVID-19 prevention and control with medical experts from 13 countries, including Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Pakistan. Prior to this, the team that provided medical assistance to Wuhan had already shared experiences and insights with medical workers in Italy, Australia, the United States and several other countries.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, China has implemented comprehensive and stringent prvention and control measures. During the critical period when China was fighting the epidemic at its peak, more than 60 international sister cities, international organizations and other international collaborators offered whatever support they could to the people of Xi'an and donated epidemic prevention supplies such as medical masks and protective clothing. After so much hard work, China has made phased achievements in containing the outbreak, and the ancient capital of Xi'an is reviving its prosperity.
Due to the current rapid spread of COVID-19 across the globe, some countries in Europe and Asia are having a hard time fighting the disease. In a sign of solidarity and in reciprocation of help when needed, the Xi'an Municipal Government immediately coordinated assistance for its international sister cities in a variety of ways. The Municipal authorities provided the first batch of medical and anti-epidemic supplies to seven sister cities in four countries, namely Italy, Iran, South Korea and The Philippines. On March 20, donated supplies including medical masks, protective clothing, medical gloves, and disinfection and sterilization supplies worth more than 3 million RMB were collected from the Xi'an Xianyang International Airport and sent to Pompeii and Veneto in Italy, Isfahan in Iran, Gyeongju and Jinju in South Korea, and Ilijan in The Philippines. After the arrival of the first batch of these supplies, the recipient sister cities expressed their gratitude to the people of Xi'an.
So as to maintain effective and ongoing epidemic prevention and the orderly resumption of production, Xi'an went all out to provide a second round of assistance and donated supplies to more than 30 international sister cities. On April 13, a batch of supplies worth about 1.9 million RMB was collected for distribution to more than 10 cities in a number of countries, namely France, Switzerland, Germany, Malaysia, Colombia and Nepal, and these supplies will arrive at the destinations very soon. As a next step, Xi'an will collect and distribute more donated supplies to other cities, and the city authorities also plan to send supplies to its international expert consultants.
