In its fight against the coronavirus China is fighting for the world: China Daily editorial

Despite the continuous increase in the number of people infected with the novel coronavirus in China — nearly 21,000 as of Tuesday evening — since late last week, the number of those cured has surpassed those that have died of it, representing an important turning point in the fight against the virus.

According to the National Health Commission, as of Tuesday evening, 739 people had been cured while 426 had died. Also, the daily gap between the two numbers is becoming wider — 261 people were announced cured on Tuesday, with 65 people confirmed to have died.

To put the Wuhan outbreak in perspective, the death rate is 2.1 percent while the death rate in the H1N1 influenza pandemic — that spread to 214 countries from the United States in 2009 and claimed at least 18,500 lives — was 17.4 percent, according to the World Health Organization.

Which is why Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated on Monday that there is "no reason to really panic now", while calling on all countries to implement decisions that are evidence-based and consistent, a message he also delivered last week when the WHO declared the outbreak a global health emergency, mainly to warn the least-developed countries to be prepared.

It is the great sacrifices of the medical staff and residents in hard-hit Hubei province, and the unswerving efforts of the whole nation that have helped bring down the death rate to the current level, while preventing the epidemic from becoming a global pandemic — so far the total number of infections detected outside of China has been few.

No wonder that the international community speaks highly of the effectiveness, efficiency, responsiveness, scale and transparency of the measures China has been taking in fighting the virus, as these are not only protecting the Chinese people, but also the rest of the world.

As well as the WHO, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have also extended their sympathies to those affected by the outbreak and praised China's efforts to contain it.

The World Bank, noting that the Chinese authorities had announced a sizable injection of liquidity — 1.2 trillion yuan ($171.5 billion) — said there was still plenty of policy space to respond to the impacts of the outbreak.

While, Kristalina Georgieva, head of the International Monetary Fund, expressing confidence in the resilience of the Chinese economy, said that unpredictability was now the norm in the world, and preparedness, prevention and early action — such as that demonstrated by China in its swift response to the public health crisis — had to get into the bloodstream of policymakers.

Shortcomings and difficulties exposed in the response to the epidemic have prompted China's top leadership to call for improvements to China's "national emergency management system".

Nevertheless, China's comprehensive efforts to respond to the economic impacts of the outbreak, including recent fiscal, monetary and financial actions, should serve to reduce the uncertainties and instill confidence.

In this sense, to support China's fight with the virus is in line with the common interests of the whole world.