Chinese in Italy get expert advice from home

Chinese people living in Italy, a country hit hard by the novel coronavirus outbreak, have received practical suggestions about self-protection during the pandemic from front-line doctors from their motherland.

A medical team of 12 experts from Zhejiang province arrived in Milan, Italy on March 18 to help with the European country's fight against the virus. The team gave a one-hour online lecture to overseas Chinese on Wednesday afternoon to help them stay safe from COVID-19.

More than 1,200 people, mostly Chinese students in Italy, listened to the lecture via the internet and interacted with the doctors, who shared knowledge about the coronavirus, typical symptoms of infection and ways to avoid infection. The doctors also answered questions.

Qiu Yunqing, the leader of the Zhejiang medical team in Italy and executive vice-president of First Affiliated Hospital of the Zhejiang University School of Medicine, said the best way to minimize the risk of being infected by the coronavirus is to stay at home.

"Being isolated is key," Qiu said, adding that as long as people stay at home, there is little risk of infection even in a hard-hit region.

Qiu advised Chinese people overseas not to rush back to China unless the trip is absolutely necessary, as the long journey will be fraught with uncertainties.

"The risk of coronavirus infection could be higher on the way to China than at home," Qiu said.

Wang Xiaoyan, a senior nurse in Zhejiang, taught people how to protect themselves properly. She pointed out that no matter how serious the pandemic is, staying at home, wearing masks when going out, washing hands and disinfecting the home regularly will always be effective.

To help people better identify the symptoms of a novel coronavirus infection, doctor Yu Haiying explained the differences between the common cold, flu and COVID-19 succinctly.

With the current full blooming of flowers in Milan, some Chinese students said they are worried that the virus could be attached to pollen and transmitted that way.

Yang Junchao, vice-president of Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, said the coronavirus mainly spreads via droplets and close contact, and the possibility of aerosol transmission is very low.

Yang also explained the applications of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of coronavirus infections in Zhejiang and expressed hope that TCM could help in Italy as well.

TCM has been used on patients at different stages of the disease, Yang said, and has borne fruit in China. In Zhejiang, about 95 percent of the novel coronavirus patients and 92 percent of suspected cases received treatment that integrated TCM with Western medicine.

"We brought some star TCM products to Italy this time and planned to donate them to the Chinese people in the country to help them prevent infectiojn," Yang said.

"We should be aware that fear about the disease is normal, and what we can do to ease the stress is to learn more about it, and sometimes distract ourselves from the pandemic."

Based on the strict measures the Italian government has ordered to control the pandemic, Ling Feng, an official at the Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the situation in Italy is developing in the right direction.

"If the prevention and control measures are implemented strictly and the number of infected patients gets smaller over a period of time, I believe the whole situation will be resolved in the near future," Ling said.

Qin Jirong contributed to the story.