First-hand experience in fighting COVID-19 shared with doctors overseas

A trans-continental video seminar, involving experts in Hangzhou, Wuhan, Ireland and the UK, started at 6 p.m. sharp on March 13. Organized by Oisín J. O’Connell, Honorary Senior Medical Lecturer at University College Cork in Ireland, 30-plus overseas specialists had this opportunity to gain access to China’s first-hand experience in dealing with COVID-19.

At the seminar, WANG Jian’an, Dean of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, introduced to the participants a series of measures that the Chinese government has advocated in the battle against the epidemic, including wearing face masks, washing hands regularly, practicing social distancing and self-isolating at home. In terms of preventing imported cases, he shared the valuable experience of the hospital, such as imposing different quarantine measures on people from differently-affected areas, containing and cutting off transmission routes, early diagnosis and intervention, the coordinated allocation of medical resources, etc. He also displayed the “Green Code” on his smartphone, which was the health QR code powered by big date capabilty in Hangzhou.

Also present at the seminar were WANG Weilin (Executive Vice Dean), HUANG Jian (Vice Dean), SHEN Huahao (Director of the Respiratory Department), ZHANG Mao (Director of the Emergency Medicine Department) and XU Feng (Vice Director of the Infectious Disease Department). They talked about their first-hand experience in Wuhan, how Zhejiang responded to the epidemic, and the precautious measures of the hospital.

At the close of the seminar, WANG Jian’an expressed that the hospital will go to great lengths to assist those in need in Ireland and the UK. “President XI Jinping proposed the idea of building a community with a shared future for mankind. As a hospital affiliated to Zhejiang University, we will keep our motherland in mind and the whole world in view. Many international friends lend their hand to us when we have difficulty. In return, we are supposed to offer our generous help them when they are in trouble,” said WANG Jian’an.