China to continue its assistance to Africa's Ebola fight: envoy

A Chinese envoy to the United Nations Tuesday said that China will continue its assistance to affected African countries in their fight against the Ebola epidemic.

Wang Min, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, made the remarks at a UN General Assembly meeting on the recent progress in the fight against the spread of virus.

Wang noted that the fight against the epidemic has shown "some progress" at this stage, warning that "the situation remains grave and we must not let down our guards."

He called on the international community to strengthen concerted efforts to respond and support the UN to continue its leading role in coordinating international relief responses.

"All countries must expeditiously honor their commitment and intensify their cooperation with Ebola-stricken countries to have the assistance delivered as soon as possible," Wang added.

In light of the new development in the epidemic, Wang said that the focus of fight against Ebola should be gradually shifted from the national level to local levels, as well as to the remote areas. He said that priorities of assistance should also be adjusted accordingly.

The envoy said that efforts to help African countries to improve their capacity-building in the health system and the economic-social development should be intensified.

China has provided four batches of emergency assistance to the Ebola-affected countries, with a total worth of 750 million RMB (about 120 million U.S. dollars). The total number of the experts and medical staff sent by China to the affected countries has exceeded 700.

Last week, China delivered by air to the three affected countries 220,000 sets of personal protective equipment, a large number of hospital beds and infrared thermometers. On Monday, China began to transport more health care kits, ambulances, pickup trucks, motorcycles and other supplies to the affected countries.

China will launch a China-Africa long-term plan on public health cooperation, which includes 12 training courses on public health and pandemic prevention and control this year.

"This aid operation is the longest in duration, widest in scale, and the strongest in intensity of all aid operations undertaken by China so far in response to public health crises in other countries and regions," said Wang, adding that "China's assistance will not stop as long as the Ebola epidemic continues to exist in Africa."