Chinese ambassador to Namibia calls for greater solidarity, cooperation in COVID-19 fight

WINDHOEK - Chinese Ambassador to Namibia Zhang Yiming has called for greater solidarity and cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 in an article recently published in local media.

The official said this is very necessary as new COVID-19 variants raging around the world are currently affecting more than 130 countries and regions, including China and Namibia.

However, he said that despite this, some countries are busy cultivating a "political virus" by politicizing the issue of virus origins-tracing, coercing the World Health Organization (WHO), maliciously discrediting China, and interfering in the overall situation of global unity in fighting against the pandemic.

"Virus origins-tracing aims to prevent the further spread of the virus and avoid the recurrence of a similar pandemic by studying the origin, transmission, and evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be impossible to achieve the goal if we do not take science as a guide and carry out extensive research in multiple countries and regions across the world," he added.

Zhang said China firmly supports and has actively participated in the origins-tracing research led by the WHO since the pandemic broke out.

"Since 2020, WHO experts from 10 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan, have been invited to China twice to carry out research together with their Chinese counterparts," he said.

"Virus origins-tracing should not be politicized, stigmatized, or instrumentalized, nor should it be used as a means for one country to attack other countries," he said.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zhang said, China has upheld the concept of a community of health for all. Since March 2020, the Chinese government has donated 58 batches of anti-pandemic materials, and taken the lead in donating 100,000 vaccine doses to Namibia, and listed Namibia as the first batch of countries to purchase vaccines produced in China.

"All the above reflects not only the high-level bilateral relationship between our two countries, but also China's positive role in the international community's fight against the pandemic as a responsible major country," he said.