On February 10, 2020, Nigerian leading newspapers Thisday, Leadership, New Telegraph,Guardian, Sun, Peoples Daily, The Nation and Pilot published an article written by Ambassador of China to Nigeria Dr. ZHOU Pingjian. The full text goes as follows:
China is currently fighting an all-out people’s war against the novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) outbreak. The virus is unprecedented, so are the measures China has taken.
The safety and health of the people always comes first, and thus the prevention and control of the outbreak is the country’s top priority for now. The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee has convened two meetings for redeployment and remobilization on January 25 and February 3 respectively. President Xi Jinping has made it very clear that the CPC Central Committee always places people’s life, security and health above anything else. The Central Leading Group on responding to the outbreak has convened five meetings on epidemic control efforts. The group has traveled to Wuhan, the epicenter of the NCP outbreak, to direct the efforts on the ground. The State Council’s inter-agency prevention and control task force has redoubled its efforts to make sure that all urgent issues are resolved in a most timely manner.
On February 8, the 1500-bed Leishenshan Hospital was put into use. Earlier, the 1000-bed Huoshenshan Hospital went into full operation on February 3. Both of the makeshift hospitals were built in less than 10 days. More than 11000 doctors and nurses across the country arrived in Wuhan within a few days and are now fighting on the epicenter of the epidemic day and night. We are racing against time to save lives.
Our efforts are producing results. Since February 1, cured NCP cases began to outnumber deaths. As of 24:00 p.m. February 8, a total of 2649 persons had been discharged from hospital after recovery, unfortunately 811 persons had died of the disease. Since February 3, newly reported confirmed cases are declining day by day outside Hubei, the province with Wuhan as its capital, from 890 cases that day to 731 cases (February 4), 707 cases (February 5), 696 cases (February 6), 558 cases (February 7), 509 cases (February 8). The figures above are important signs that the epidemic is preventable, controllable and curable.
As President Xi assures the world, being good at mobilizing resources and equipped with rich experience in handling public health emergencies, China has the confidence and capability to win the battle. The robust measures are taken not only for the health of China's own people but also as a great contribution to global public safety.
Acting with openness, transparency and a high sense of responsibility, the Chinese government has been sharing information in a timely manner, enhancing international cooperation, putting in place a nation-wide scheme, pooling national resources and taking the most strict and thorough measures to fight the outbreak. The National Health Commission and the Wuhan health authorities hold daily briefings to keep the public updated. China’s openness, transparency and high sense of responsibility, and its decisive and effective measures have been recognized by the international community. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), affirms on many occasions that China has in fact taken more measures to contain the outbreak that it is required to do in case of an emergency, and China is setting a new standard for outbreak response for other countries.
Regrettably, we have noted some rumors and lies on the NCP epidemic. Virus is horrible. What’s more horrible is rumors and panic. As WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros has repeatedly called on people not to believe in rumors or spread them, “This is the time for facts, not fear. This is the time for science, not rumors. This is the time for solidarity, not stigma.” In some countries including Nigeria, relevant departments have been stepping up efforts to bring to justice those creating and spreading rumors about the epidemic. On February 1, five Abuja residents who had faked coronavirus infection were swiftly arrested by the FCT police for their gratuitous prank .
Every life is precious. One NCP case is too many. However, we still need to put things in perspective and have a objective and accurate analysis of the situation. All the responses to the epidemic should be based on science instead of fear.
I wish to stress that, as of February 8, the mortality rate of the NCP is 2.18% (811 deaths out of 37198 confirmed cases), and the mortality rate in Chinese provinces and cities other than Wuhan is merely 0.91% (203 deaths out of 22210 confirmed cases), even lower than that of ordinary pneumonia. The mortality rate outside Hubei is 0.31% (31 deaths out of 10098 confirmed cases). In contrast, the H1N1 flu of 2009 in the US had a mortality rate of 17.4%, the mortality rate of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) of 2012 was 34.4% and Ebola of 2014 in West Africa 40.4%. In fact, according to a recent CDC report, the US flu from 2019 to 2020 has caused 19 million infection cases and at least 10,000 deaths. There are 200 or so NCP cases of infections worldwide, far less than 1% of the case count in China, while the H1N1 outbreak in the US spread to 214 regions and countries.
It is understandable that s