Wuhan to lift outbound traffic restrictions on April 8

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

China's Wuhan, the epicenter of Coronavirus (COVID-19), will open travel to outside the city on April 8, with other parts of Hubei province ending their lockdown, according to a government announcement. 

The provincial government also announced that people will need to show a health code, a digital health certificate issued by the province, when leaving the province. Wuhan will continue stringent traffic control until April 8. 

However, starting on March 25, the migrant workers in Wuhan, who hold a green health code and wish to return to work outside the city, could be transported in groups directly to their destinations after passing a nucleic acid test for novel Coronavirus, according to the announcement. 

The other travelers with a green health code will be able to leave the city on April 8 while people from other provinces will be able to travel within the province with the health code issued by their original provincial regions without the need to present other certificates. 

Wuhan will gradually resume production based on epidemic risk evaluation. The opening time of school, including colleges, kindergartens and vocational institutions, is still postponed and will be set at a later time, the announcement added.

JPMC needs resources to meet bigger challenges

By Mukhtar Alam 
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), the biggest public sector tertiary health care facility in Sindh, is in dire need of more resources to cope with the bigger challenges.

“The government health facilities are pretty good as far as the availability of trained staff is concerned, but they are weak in money. They need a lot of equipment and financial aid,” Dr Seemi Jamali, Executive Director, JPMC, reckoned. 

The JPMC authorities kept an eye closely on the issues relating to the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) as it spread into Pakistan from the neighbouring countries. 

“We had taken it as a challenge and did a lot to in this regard in the preceding weeks. We kept modifying things on a daily basis after having vacated a whole block for such patients,” Dr Seemi Jamali stated. 

Talking about doctors and paramedical staff, she said that the juniors were being motivated on a daily basis. 

Earlier a team of the World Health Organization (WHO) had undertaken a visit to the JPMC to see the preparations and measures being employed to tackle Coronavirus. 

The WHO team, headed by their country representative in Pakistan, Dr Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala, expressed satisfaction over safety methods and screening systems employed at the healthcare centre for possible Coronavirus patients.

Pakistan willing to learn from China to combat Coronavirus

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health, Dr Zafar Mirza, stated that Pakistan was willing to learn more from China's experience. 

“We will further strengthen exchanges and cooperation on epidemic prevention and control to achieve this goal,” he stated after his meeting with the Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, Yao Jing, in Islamabad. 

They exchanged views on the current prevention and steps to rein in the COVID-19 outbreak in Pakistan. 

“Ever since the outbreak of the new Coronavirus in Pakistan, China and Pakistan have maintained close communication. We are thankful to the Chinese government, local governments, enterprises and non-governmental friendly people for providing Pakistan with a lot of medical supplies,” Dr Zafar Mirza remarked. 

“Under the leadership of the Chinese Communists party and government, the Chinese people widely succeeded in defeating the epidemic and provided a model for the global response to the epidemic,” he complimented. 

The Chinese Ambassador didn’t mince words in describing Coronavirus as a test which the world was facing. Since the outbreak, the Pakistani government and all sections of society have expressed understanding and support for China's fight against the epidemic, and provided assistance. 

Ambassador Yao specially mentioned President Dr Arif Alvi’s recent visit to China in person. 

“The Chinese government and people have also provided assistance to Pakistan and will continue to stand firmly with the Pakistani people and take more positive measures to support the Pakistani response to the epidemic by jointly fighting the epidemic, China-Pakistan's all-weather strategic cooperative partnership will be further deepened, and the foundation of the China-Pakistan community of shared destiny will be more solid,” the Chinese Ambassador added.

China helps Serbia to halt virus spreading

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

China has flown in six doctors, ventilators and medical masks to Serbia to help Belgrade halt spreading of the Coronavirus pandemic, which has wreaked havoc in Europe and rest of the world. 

The Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, expressed his gratitude to the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, the Chinese communist party and the Chinese people.

"The arrival of Chinese health professionals is of great importance to us because they were the first to defeat the great enemy of today: COVID-19," the Serbian President remarked. 

"Everything on this plane is free-of-charge assistance, a donation from the People's Republic of China. We should thank them with all our hearts, they have proven to be great friends of Serbia and Serbs," he added. 

Serbia's largest aircraft, the Airbus A330, landed in from China with the largest shipment of aid to Serbia including medical devices, security equipment and six Chinese experts

The medical aid packages that came from China read in Chinese language and in Cyrillic: "The friendship of steel, we share the good and the evil!" with a heart that had the flag of Serbia on one side, and the flag of China on the other.

China's ambassador to Belgrade, Chen Bo, said the aid was a sign of the "iron friendship" between the two countries. 

China has also extended loans worth billions of dollars to build railways, roads and power plants in Serbia and bought the country’s only copper mine and a steel plant.