Photo taken on March 23, 2020 shows the venue of an online meeting on COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control among representatives from China and Latin American and Caribbean countries in San Salvador, El Salvador. A timely-held meeting at a critical moment for the region of Latin America and the Caribbean in the fight against the quickly-spreading novel coronavirus has won widespread praise and appreciation among the local people. On Monday evening, representatives from China and Latin American and Caribbean countries held the meeting online on COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control, which lasted over three hours.(Photo by Alexander Pena/Xinhua)
by Xinhua writers Cui Yuanlei, Zhao Kai, Jiang Yan
MEXICO CITY, March 25 (Xinhua) -- A timely-held meeting at a critical moment for the region of Latin America and the Caribbean in the fight against the quickly-spreading novel coronavirus has won widespread praise and appreciation among the local people.
On Monday evening, representatives from China and Latin American and Caribbean countries held the meeting online on COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control, which lasted over three hours.
Chinese experts talked in detail about the virus' characteristics and Chinese experience in disease control, clinical treatment and community-based quarantine while giving thorough answers to questions raised by their foreign counterparts.
The video conference was held with a focus to backstop the efforts of Latin America, a region home to about 650 million people, to confront the pandemic.
It reflected the principle of putting people's health and safety as the top priority, which has guided China in taking effective measures to curb the spread of the virus and is still applicable in Latin America at this crucial time.
According to latest figures, by Wednesday, over 7,500 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in the region and more than 120 people have died.
The joint efforts between China and Latin American countries in combating COVID-19 are important to the region, which has a relatively fragile health system, already stretched thin in dealing with growing cases.
Such efforts have highlighted that the proposal to build a China-Latin American community with a shared future bears more significance now as human beings are facing a common enemy which knows no borders or races.
China has encountered and dealt with the COVID-19 outbreak and accumulated valuable experience.
The international community has already arrived at a consensus that China made enormous sacrifices in the fight against the contagious disease and bought precious time for the world, said Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday in a phone conversation with his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro.
Moreover, China has also been sharing the experience with the world without reservation and this video conference is just a snapshot of it.
Latin American officials and experts at the conference spoke highly of China's effective measures to contain the virus, saying they would like to draw on China's experience in their own battle.
During a visit to Latin America in 2016, Xi compared the shared future between China and Latin America to a giant ship.
Through coordinated efforts and concerted action, China and Latin America will surely win the battle against COVID-19, and after navigating through the temporary winds and waves, the giant ship will sail more steadily toward a more promising future.
