Beijing offers help to tackle health crisis

A special mission with medical experts from China has arrived in Moscow at the invitation of the Russian government.

The 10-member group, includes epidemiologists from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and from hospitals and medical institutes in Heilongjiang province, arrived on Saturday.

The group held a video conference on Sunday with Chinese students, representatives of Chinese companies in Moscow, teachers from Confucius Institutes in local universities, and a Chinese businessman who had close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 patient.

The experts will visit hospitals in Moscow, including the main coronavirus hospital, Kommunarka, and some unfinished hospitals in the city, said Hao Huilong, the expert-team leader.

Hao, who is also vice-chairman of Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said the experts hope their visit will help improve the situation with COVID-19 in Russia.

Russia's tally of confirmed COVID cases surpassed 15,770 on Sunday, 2,186 more than on Saturday. There were reported to be 1,291 recoveries and 130 deaths.

Meanwhile, Ten Chinese experts began their first working day in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, on Friday, sharing expertise with their Kazakh colleague on how to prevent COVID-19 spreading.

The group's scheduled 15-day visited started at the National Public Health Center of Kazakhstan, which collects information on COVID-19 in the country.

After hearing about measures being taken to combat the disease in Kazakhstan, the experts held a conference with Kazakh doctors across the country, and Chinese doctors hailed Kazakh efforts.

"During our stay, it became clear that work to contain the coronavirus in Nur-Sultan, where a quarantine is being observed, is being well done," said Lu Xiaobo, an infectious diseases doctor.

"Everybody is wearing a face mask."

Later there was an online meeting with the Kazakh Health Minister, Yelzhan Birtanov.

Restrictions imposed since mid-March had resulted in a slower increase of cases in Nur-Sultan and Almaty, Birtanov said. However, infections in other regions had risen quickly, prompting the government to extend a state of emergency until the end of this month.

The Chinese experts' visit is the result of a timely decision by the leaders of the two countries, Birtanov said.

Help from wide range

Chinese individuals and organizations worldwide continue to contribute help in fighting the pandemic.

Over the past few days the Bank of China USA has donated hundreds of thousands of surgical masks and gloves to health care workers, front-line responders and other people in essential services in New York.

The donation of 120,000 surgical masks and 12,000 surgical gloves in the initial phase is near completion, the aim being to alleviate the shortage of personal protective equipment, said Catherine Feng, senior vice-president of the Bank of China's New York branch.

A shipment of 11 tons of medical supplies related to CVID-19 arrived in Mexico from China late on Friday, Mexican authorities said.

Mexico's Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said an Aeromexico Boeing 787-8 aircraft had carried the shipment, including 1.9 million face masks and 820,000 surgical masks.

"The equipment will be distributed over the coming weekend," Ebrard said.

It was the second flight carrying medical supplies from China to Mexico.

Shipments of medical supplies from China are expected to arrive between two and four times a week, for a total of 20 shipments, the Mexican government said.

Six ventilators of different models and 58,000 medical masks donated by China arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday, the Chinese embassy in Sarajevo said.

Chinese local governments, civil society and businesses are also preparing material aid for Bosnia and Herzegovina and are looking at ways of getting the goods to their destination, the embassy said.