China to continue helping Africa fight COVID-19: spokesperson

Senior officials from Zimbabwe's Ministry of Health and Harare City Council participate in the China-Africa Video Conference on COVID-19 in Harare, Zimbabwe, March 18, 2020.

China stands ready to actively support and help African countries and regional organizations in fighting the COVID-19 epidemic and jointly safeguarding global public health security, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Thursday.

Addressing a press conference, Geng said a video conference held Wednesday between experts and officials from China and African countries on containing the COVID-19 epidemic has achieved good results.

Nearly 300 officials and experts from 24 African countries and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention attended the conference, said Geng, adding that during the three and a half hours, Chinese experts detailed the traits and trends of the coronavirus epidemic, shared China's experience in epidemic containment and clinic treatment and answered nearly 50 questions from the African side.

The experts of Mali participate in the China-Africa Video Conference on COVID-19 in Bamako, Mali, March 18, 2020.

Geng said the African side spoke highly of China's progress in fighting against the coronavirus epidemic and China's significant contributions to safeguarding global public health security.

The African side stressed that China's actions provide valuable experience and have built a model for African countries to contain the coronavirus epidemic, he added.

"While continuing our fight against the disease at home, China will unreservedly share our experience to contain the epidemic with the African side and continue offering as much help as possible based on African countries' needs to commonly safeguard regional and global public health security," Geng said.