Luo Aihua, People’s Daily
Kingsley, a Nigerian patient who had contracted the novel coronavirus, was recently
discharged from Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital, south China’s Guangdong
province after month-long treatment.
“I received good care and medical treatment in China, and I’m grateful toward the
medical workers,” the man said.
So far, all 41 imported COVID-19 cases and 143 infected but asymptomatic
foreigners have been discharged from hospitals in Guangzhou.
The city dispatched a working group to guide pandemic containment, and offered
daily services, foreign affairs communication, emergency response and 24-hour
service. In addition, it also rolled off a package of management policies, and set up 46
workstations across the city to help foreigners.
Guidebooks of living in Guangzhou have been available for foreigners in every
residential communities and designated quarantine hotels since March, which
introduce hotel information and contact information of nearby supermarkets and
restaurants. Besides, the city has also dispatched work teams to residential
communities and hotels that work 24 hours a day, which are all equipped with
translators or translating machines.
Mike, an kindergarten teacher from Egypt living in Lixing community, Zengcheng
district of Guangzhou, said China was doing its best to protect people’s lives and
health, which made him safe and reassured, adding that he is happy living in the
country.
Valeria from Russia shared the photos and videos she took at a quarantine site in
Guangzhou with her friends, and they all hailed the environment and meticulous
services.
Sakamoto from Japan wrote a letter to the hotel he stayed for quarantine, saying “I
encountered nothing unpleasant or inconvenient in Guangzhou. The 14-day
quarantine was a happy experience for me.”
In an open letter to its Chinese and foreign residents, Guangzhou required that service
agencies and individuals treat Chinese and foreigners equally, and do not discriminate
based on nationality, skin color or gender. The letter also provided 20 how-tos on
entering 16 kinds of facilities in the city, as well as extensive tips on living in
Guangzhou, to make sure foreign residents enjoy the same services in the city as their
Chinese peers do.
Touched by the attentive services, more foreigners volunteered to help on the front
line of COVID-19 control.
Cameroonian student Wilson and his Burundian friend volunteered to deliver food at
a designated quarantining hotel in Baiyun district of Guangzhou, while foreign
students from Guangdong Mechanical and Electrical Polytechnic set up the city’s first
international volunteering organization, an 84-member group offering translation
service for neighborhood committees and foreign residents.
Besides, 14 students from Tanzania and other 12 African countries studying at the
Southern Medical University organized a service team to help medical workers at
Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital comfort foreign asymptomatic coronavirus
carriers.
Twenty-five volunteers from 15 foreign countries, including the U.S., Angola,
Cameroon, France, Ghana, Italy and India recently shared their stories of fighting
COVID-19 on an exchange meeting held at a community service station in
Guangzhou’s Tianhe district. One of the volunteers who have stayed in the city for 20
years said he takes Guangzhou as his home, and some said their friends have been
inspired to join the volunteering service by them.
By taking the most comprehensive, strict and thorough control and prevention
measures, China is gradually improving COVID-19 containment results and has
realized important phased achievements, gaining wide recognition and praise from
foreigners in Guangzhou. Gureeye Abdirahman Abdinasir, a graduate student from
Southern Medical University said he understands China’s control measures, as the
country prevents the virus, not people.
“It is because of the strong preventative measures taken by the country that we are
now able to move freely,” said Catherine McNabb from Canada, who is the chief sales
officer at the marketing department of Four Seasons Hotel in Guangzhou.
Alima Danfakha Gakou, head of a consular delegation of African countries in
Guangzhou and consul general of Mali in Guangzhou, highly praised the unremitting
efforts of China in the fight against COVID-19 on behalf of the consul generals from
65 countries and other officials of the consulates in Guangzhou, at a recent meeting.
Giving full recognition to China’s sharing of disease containment experiences and
provision of preventive medical materials, she thanked Guangzhou for its efforts to
protect the general interests, and to advance friendship, solidarity and cooperation.
