Chinese medical team gives Italy confidence

ROME－Twelve years ago Luigi D'Angelo was among many overseas experts who raced to the Chinese county of Wenchuan, Chengdu province, after it was hit by an earthquake that killed at least 69,000 people.

D'Angelo, director of the Emergency Office of the Italian Civil Protection Department, had been sent to help Wenchuan in its hour of need by the European Union and Italy.

Last week D'Angelo was in Rome becoming reacquainted with old friends: Chinese medical workers who had arrived in the Italian capital to, as he put it, "help our doctors and nurses face this terrible emergency", the unfolding novel coronavirus epidemic.

As it happens, one member of the first Chinese medical team that arrived in Rome, Tang Menglin, is from Sichuan, and she clearly identified with D'Angelo's comradeship.

"As a Sichuan local I'm fortunate to be here to repay Italians' kindness," she said.

A popular cartoon drawn by an Italian girl recently impressed her a lot. In the picture, two medical staff from Italy and China work together to protect the boot-shaped country from falling down.

The nine-member Chinese medical team also brought tons of medical supplies from China, including ventilators, monitors, defibrillators and 30 sets of intensive care equipment.

The Chinese medical team, organized by the National Health Commission and the Red Cross Society of China, aims to offer medical supplies, lend China's expertise, and help Italy build confidence in epidemic prevention and control.

"We have spent a lot of time sharing epidemic prevention and control measures, and strengthening people's confidence in home quarantine," said Sun Shuopeng, head of the team and vice president of the Red Cross Society of China.

The joint efforts are producing results. "Compared with the situation when we came to Rome, there are fewer and fewer people on the streets now," Sun said.

"We also helped the hotel where we stayed set up a preventive and control system. The hotel isolates and measures the body temperature of every guest and includes disinfection in its daily operations. By the time we left, the hotel had become a standardized unit for epidemic prevention and control."

Efforts pay off

The Chinese doctors had intensive and extensive communication with their Italian counterparts and their efforts paid off. "I think Italy is moving toward a more institutionalized pattern for epidemic prevention and control," Sun said.

To help many overseas Chinese, including employees of Chinese-funded companies, Chinese students and stranded travelers in Italy, the expert team expounded on the symptoms, prevention methods and treatment of COVID-19 via a livestream at the Chinese embassy, attracting nearly 700,000 viewers.

"Tensions and anxieties are very common," said Yang Huichuan, a doctor on the Chinese medical team. "I spoke with a Chinese student anxious about the spread of the disease in Italy. We encouraged him not to panic and to protect himself using effective methods."

Sun said: "Once home quarantine becomes more organized, early detection and reporting mechanisms are in place, and hospital capacity and treatment system are improved, overseas Chinese will feel safer."

After several days in Rome, the first expert team headed north to Padova to help local medical staff.

A second group of Chinese medical team arrived in Milan the next day with 9 tons of medical materials for use in fighting alongside Italian medics against the pandemic.

Yang said that when he first entered his hotel room in Rome there was a note in Chinese, English and Italian on his desk that read: "We stand together, we fight together, we win together."

Xinhua