Sharing knowledge, experience and best practices are of the utmost importance to combat Covid-19, Jack Ma said late Tuesday in a webinar that brought together medical practitioners in Africa and China to discuss ways to fight against the coronavirus outbreak.
The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Group founder appeared in the livestreamed medical-exchange webinar co-hosted by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The two-hour session was broadcast on the Global MediXchange for Combating Covid-19 platform.
Over 1,600 healthcare workers from more than 20 African nations participated in the live exchange. The full webinar is also viewable via playback.
The session was part of the GMCC’s ongoing efforts to share coronavirus-related insights and experience among medical communities around the globe. Since March, the platform has organized knowledge-exchange sessions between medical experts in China and those from Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
“Over the past three months, I have spent each and every day following the pandemic. And during our donation efforts, we realized that not only medical supplies are needed but also frontline experience to fight the virus are crucial,” Ma said. “That is why we established the GMCC. The purpose is to share existing experience so that other countries do not need to start from zero.”
WATCH: Highlights from Jack Ma’s GMCC remarks
During the exchange, Dr. Chen Wang, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, shared lessons gained from Wuhan, the original epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.
He discussed a range of solutions implemented in China, from city lockdowns and holiday extensions to community-management initiatives and the construction of shelter hospitals. Wang said he hoped that insights from the country’s unified approach across all layers of society could inspire ideas and solutions among international communities dealing with similar problems.
Dr. Yang Sun, president of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, and his team of multi-disciplinary clinicians also shared their experiences of dealing with the disease from the perspective of a large-scale public hospital. Examples he cited included the establishment of multiple lines of defense to treat patients with varying degrees of symptoms.
“The continent is extremely appreciative of the support it received from the Jack Ma Foundation on several occasions, including today,” said Africa CDC Director John Nkengasong. “We look forward to learning the experiences from our colleagues in China. This is a new normal for us and we will use technologies as best as we can to advance the fight against Covid-19.”
During the livestreamed session, Ma pledged his continued support to Africa amid the health crisis. He also called on others to stand together to battle the global pandemic.
“Solidarity and collaboration are the only ways we can succeed,” he said. “The solution is not isolation but cooperation instead.”
For more coverage on Jack Ma Foundation’s coronavirus-relief efforts,click here.
