The Online Exchange of Experience on COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention and Control jointly sponsored by our school and Uruguay Paysand Research Center was successfully held on March 18th evening (Beijing Time). Salinas Daniel, Minister of Public Health of Uruguay, Wang Gang, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Uruguay, and He Ying, Vice President of SBS, delivered speeches on the exchange meeting. Zhu Renyi, director of Department of Disinfection and Infection Control of Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Albornoz Henry, President of Uruguayan Society of Clinical Infectious Diseases, and Miao Qing, member of the Party Committee of Xiyuan Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Science and director of Pulmonary Disease Department, introduced the situation and shared their experience on pandemic prevention and control in China and Uruguay. The meeting was co-hosted by Chen Wei, deputy dean of the School of International Education, and Deréan Gonzalo, vice president of Paysand Research Center of Uruguay. A total of 530 participants, including some Spanish speaking Latin American students who participated in our school’s foreign aid training over the years and Uruguayan medical professionals, attended the online conference.

Health Minister Salinas Daniel introduced in his speech the overall situation of Uruguay in fighting against COVID-19. Up to now, Uruguay has about 75000 confirmed cases, accounting for 2% of Uruguay’s total population. Compared with other countries in Latin America, the pandemic situation in Uruguay is generally controllable. Just from the outset, the government of Uruguay immediately adopted a series of positive and proper anti-pandemic measures, including extensive nucleic acid testing, strict epidemiological survey and quarantine measures, timely analysis of variant viruses, etc. Next, Uruguay will further accelerate the vaccination process, set more vaccination points nationwide, expand the scope of vaccination, and strive to achieve full coverage of vaccination as soon as possible. Salinas also expressed his gratitude to China for helping Uruguay fight the pandemic. He said that, with the active communication and coordination of the Chinese Embassy in Uruguay, Uruguay was able to rapidly introduce SVA vaccine and thanked China for its contribution to safeguarding the well-being of the people’s livelihood in Uruguay.

Ambassador Wang Gang believed that it was necessary to hold this online exchange meeting at the critical moment of the second wave of the pandemic in Uruguay, which was conducive to further building consensus of Sino-Uruguay cooperation in fighting the pandemic, implementing the construction of human health community, and contributing to the construction of a community of shared future for mankind. Uruguay is one of the first Latin American countries to express support and provide aid to China against COVID-19 and has donated pandemic prevention supplies to China through various channels, which fully reflects the brotherhood of the Uruguayan government and people to China and Chinese people. On the first anniversary of the outbreak of COVID-19 in Uruguay, the successful arrival of two batches of Chinese SVC vaccines in Uruguay fully reflects the fruitful achievements of the head-of-state diplomacy and the high level of Sino-Uruguay strategic partnership, setting a new milestone for the two countries to join hands in the fight against the pandemic. He firmly believed that the people of the two countries were spiritually interlinked and would eventually join hands to overcome the pandemic. China and Uruguay have great potential and broad prospects in economic and trade cooperation. Sino-Uruguay strategic partnership will brave the wind and the waves and embark upon a long and new journey under the “Belt and Road Initiatives” framework.

Vice President He Ying said in her speech that the exchange meeting was not only an exchange of experience and reference in the field of epidemic prevention and control between the two countries, but also an opportunity to explore new areas of cooperation under the background of epidemic prevention and control. In combination with the work carried for the International Business Officials Training Base under the Ministry of Commerce of our school under the background of the epidemic situation, she expounded the new areas for possible cooperation between China and Uruguay in the future from three aspects: exchanging prevention and control experience, promoting online training projects and driving educational exchange and cooperation. She hoped to broaden the new areas for cooperation between the two countries in the new historical stage. She also hoped to work with relevant departments in Uruguay to reach more consensus and cooperation opportunities in the field of epidemic prevention and control, education, training and other fields with the help of the two online exchanges, jointly drive the high-quality development of the “Belt and Road Initiatives”, continually deepen bilateral cooperation and exchange, and jointly write a new chapter of cooperation between the two sides.

Director Zhu Renyi took the lead in sharing the successful experience of COVID-19 prevention, disinfection and infection control in Shanghai. He introduced Shanghai’s achievements in COVID-19 prevention and control, and explained in detail Shanghai public health emergency response system and the concrete work it has conducted, providing experience for reference for large cities in the prevention and control of pandemic outbreak. President Albonoz Henry introduced, in his speech, the basic situation of Uruguay from population, economic, social and medical aspects, and made an in-depth analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on Uruguay and the challenges it brought. He said that the measures taken by Uruguay at the onset of the pandemic, such as controlling the source of infection, banning the movement of people, and preventing mutant viruses, have effectively restrained the spread of the virus. However, the deterioration of the epidemic situation in the past three months urged Uruguay to learn more epidemic prevention experience and take more powerful prevention and control measures as soon as possible. Combined with the experience of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the treatment of COVID-19, and centering on the entry point, clinical characteristics and TCM’s understanding of COVID-19, and supplemented by typical cases, Director Miao Qing last introduced the China-specific pandemic treatment to the people of Uruguay. The virus respects no national borders, and the pandemic does not discriminate between races. “The situation is the same all over the world”. The sharing of anti-pandemic experience is one of the most powerful weapons to fight the pandemic hand in hand.

COVID-19 has swept across the globe, but China and Uruguay, though separated by vast oceans, have helped each other through thick and thin. The online exchange meeting this time is the continuation of the online exchange meeting on “the Belt and Road Initiatives” held in last November, i.e. the Online Exchange Meeting on New Areas for Sino-Uruguay Cooperation. The meeting strengthened the anti-epidemic cooperation between China and Uruguay, enhanced mutual understanding, and laid the foundation for the follow-up online activities, exchanges and cooperation.

Contributed by: Hong Xingzhi

Photographer: Chen Xiaoye  

Reviewed by: Chen Wei