Bahrain praises China for leadership on curbing coronavirus

Dr Anwar Alabdulla

By Anwar Alabdulla

Manama: The government and the people of the Kingdom of Bahrain wish to praise the massive and enlightened response of the Chinese government and its health community in its efforts to combat the corona virus epidemic.

The Chinese government has responded rapidly and transparently to this unpredictable and tragic epidemic, demonstrating its strong public health capacities and resources to respond to and manage disease outbreaks.

The coronavirus is common in many species of animals but rare in human beings, making such outbreaks unpredictable, and thus the decisive response of China is even more praiseworthy.

An unexpected epidemic like the coronavirus is a massive challenge to the local, national and international community. We laud the leadership and resolute action of the Chinese health authorities in being the first to post the full genome of the 2019-nCoV in the genetic sequence databases of the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data and the US’s GenBank. This action has greatly accelerated the detection and containment efforts on this virus.

In parallel, collaboration with the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, many national and international health organizations and, of course, the Wuhan people, on effective containment measures and studies of the behavior, severity and transmission of the virus is a huge undertaking that will prove to be decisive in this battle.

Bahrain strongly endorses the sentiments of the Director General of the WHO in praising the leadership and huge commitment of the Chinese government and people, while reinforcing that China “needs the world’s solidarity and support.” The WHO reassures us all that “the world is pulling together to end the outbreak, building on lessons learned from past outbreaks”.

In their current visit to China, the WHO officials have expressed their belief that the chains of this virus’s transmission can still be interrupted, and this epidemic will be contained. Bahrain joins the world community in expressing its appreciation for the decisive and relentless leadership and work to overcome this tragic epidemic. Bahrain pledges its support and assistance to these noble efforts.

(Dr. Anwar Alabdulla is the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to China.)

Source：People’s Daily app