China dispatches anti-COVID-19 doctors to Zimbabwe

Twelve Chinese anti-COVID-19 specialist doctors arrived in Harare on Monday on a chartered Air China flight, along with a donation of medicines and protective personal equipment to help Zimbabwe in its fight against novel coronavirus.

The medical team from Central China's Hunan province consists of senior doctors in infection control, laboratory science, critical medicine, respiratory medicine, and epidemiology and child care.

The doctors will help in sharing ideas and experiences with local medical practitioners, whom they will meet at various medical centers during their two-week mission.

Guo Shaochun, the Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe, said the team had not come to teach but to learn, exchange lessons, ideas and technologies.

"The donation shows China's capacity to help and it's not the end. The only way to fight COVID-19 is through international combination and cooperation. And we believe that through our joint efforts with Zimbabwe we can win the battle against the pandemic," he said.

July Moyo, the local government and public works minister, said the medical personnel and medical supplies will bolster the country's determination to fight the coronavirus.

"Today is mostly symbolic in that we are receiving two types of gifts: The gift of human beings with expertise and medical supplies. This is a first in our endeavor to fight the pandemic that a country has brought to us their experts to interact with our own specialists," said Moyo, who is responsible for resource mobilization in the Ad Hoc Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on COVID-19.

"We will have more insights and more things to learn, which can only assist us in our strategy to fight COVID-19. Some of the kits you have brought we were beginning to out of," Moyo said.

Doctor Zhu Yimin, the leader of the medical team, said besides sharing knowledge and expertise, the team has come to convey a message of the strong friendship between the two countries.