On April 17, Medical experts from Shanghai held a webinar with their counterparts in Southern New Zealand to exchange experience and best practice on combating COVID-19. Chairman of Southern District Health Board (SDHB) and former mayor of Dunedin Dave Cull, SDHB Chief Executive Chris Fleming, Chief Medical officer Dr. Nigel Millar with over 50 experts and frontline medical staff attended. Consul General Wang Zhijian delivered a speech at the beginning of event.

Consul General Wang stressed that COVID-19 is the common threat facing humanity, and all parties concerned need to strengthen solidarity and mutual assistance to cope with such major infectious disease and other global challenges. He briefed on the progress achieved in the field of medical and health cooperation through Shanghai-Dunedin sister-city relationship during recent years, and expressed the hope that a new window for both sides to learn from each other could be opened. He expected China and New Zealand could take the joint fight against the pandemic as an opportunity to build a community of common health for mankind.

Deputy Director of Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office Bei Zhaojian noted that Shanghai has accumulated valuable experience in treatment and prevention of COVID-19 which hopefully would be useful for New Zealand colleagues. He said Shanghai is willing to maintain further communications with SDHB on jointly tackling the pandemic.

Mr. Fleming stressed that the virus knows no borders and doesn't distinguish between ethnicities and religions, thus making the fight against COVID-19 a great battle involving all as well as linking the people in both countries closely in emotion through the common mission. Dr Millar thanked the Chinese Consulate General for sharing China's latest clinical protocols with local health departments timely, pointing out that China's first-hand materials helped New Zealand a lot in containing the spread of outbreak.

At the webinar, Dr. Sun Xiaodong, Deputy Director of Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (SCDC), and Dr. Xu Jinfu from Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital affiliated to Tongji University answered a series of questions from New Zealand attendees regarding diagnosis and treatment optimization, drug use and vaccine development, asymptomatic virus carrier detection, and personal protection equipment (PPE) for medical staff. Their informative answers were highly acclaimed.

The event was jointly hosted by the Chinese Consulate General in Christchurch, Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office and Shanghai Municipal Health Commission in collaboration with New Zealand side.