Coronavirus terrible but rumours worse: Chinese Ambassador

New Delhi, Feb 18: China on Tuesday reiterated that rumours about COVID-19 or coronavirus were terrible and had the potential to stigmatise Chinese people around the world.

Dismissing conspiracy theories around COVID-19, China’s Ambassador to India, Sun Weidong, said while talking to the media here, “The virus is terrible, but the rumour is more terrible. The coronavirus is in nature, and not man-made.”

Appealing to the media not to pay credence to such rumours, he said such rumours “will create panic and overreaction, and harm people-to-people relations. We must ensure that truth outweighs rumours and sciences prevail over ignorance.”

Weidong said that based on the analysis of genomic sequence, it is now known that the virus originates from nature.

“Stigma and discrimination come from panic, lack of understanding and empathy. Only through mutual understanding and cooperation can we truly overcome the epidemic. We hope that the international community can view the epidemic in a rational and calm way,” he said.

Giving out details of the epidemic in China, Weidong said there is a drop of over 50 per cent in the COVID-19 cases outside Hubei province, indicating that the efforts to contain the epidemic are proving effective.

The epidemic in Wuhan city in Hubei province is also being managed more effectively, he said. The cure rate, he said, has gone up from 1.3 per cent to 8.2 per cent. Over 12,000 people have recovered and discharged from hospitals.

The fatality rate is 2.29 per cent nationwide and just 0.55 per cent outside Hubei. The number of new suspected cases in China continues to decline, from the peak of more than 5,000 a day to over 2,000 a day, he said.

The Chinese envoy attributed the positive indicators to China’s confidence, compassion and cooperation.

“Our confidence comes from China’s ability to mobilise all the resources for big undertakings. To relieve the shortage of medical resources, it took us only 10 days to finish the building of two makeshift hospitals — Huoshenshan and Leishenshan,” he said.

“A total of 1,500 builders with a reserve team of 2,000 people and 280 sets of construction machinery and equipment have been working day and night. The hospitals are equipped with modern medical facilities, all made in China, with 5G high-speed network that can support the needs of 25,000 people and set up a platform for remote diagnosis and treatment,” he pointed out. (IANS)

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