Situation of COVID-19 in epicenter ‘improving,’ China’s envoy assures

Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian. File photo from the Chinese Embassy

MANILA, Philippines — Situation of the novel coronavirus, or now officially known as COVID-19, in China is “improving remarkably” with the number of new confirmed cases outside the virus’ epidemic hotbed Wuhan City in Hubei province declining for 14 consecutive days already, a Chinese envoy assured Monday.

“The situation is improving remarkably especially in those areas in China outside of the Hubei province. There [have] been 14 consecutive days that the confirmed cases have declined and some provinces have been no confirmed cases for the last few days,” Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian said in a forum in Pasig City.

“According to experts, the situation is stabilizing even in Wuhan and although it also still fluctuates, but in general trends, it is declining,” he added.

The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier reportedly said that COVID-19 in China has “stabilized,” but warned this should be viewed with “extreme caution.”

Huang expressed confidence that the Chinese government can control the deadly virus, which has so far resulted in the death of over 1,600 people.

“So, is the COVID-19 preventable, controllable and curable? The answer is yes. We are fully confident that we’ll beat the virus,” Huang said.

The Chinese envoy pointed out that the majority of COVID-19 cases being confined in China only shows that measures they put in place to contain the virus were efficient.

“Nine percent of confirmed cases happened in China because we took the measures to contain the spread in a very timely manner. So, only one percent of the confirmed cases happens out of China and no any death cases are foreigners so far,” Huang said.

According to figures of China’s health authority, only five fatalities have been recorded outside of China. Of the number, a 44-year-old Chinese national died in the Philippines due to severe pneumonia caused by COVID-19.

Meanwhile, over 69,000 individuals have already been infected by the virus globally.

Edited by KGA