Health expert emphasizes China's leading role in COVID-19 fight

China has played a significant role in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Liang Wannian, head of the National Health Commission's epidemic response expert panel, said on Monday.

Speaking at a news conference in Beijing, he said China, in facing the "war without smoke or gunpowder", has fulfilled its duties and worked with the international community.

Liang summed up China's contributions to controlling global spread of the disease as the "Five Firsts".

According to Liang, China was the first to share information and experience combating the disease; first to offer medical supplies to countries in need; first to provide vaccines to developing countries on a large scale; first to send medical experts abroad and first to propose creating a community of common health for mankind.

Since the onset of the pandemic, China has followed the principles of "law, timeliness, transparency and openness" in sharing COVID-related information with the international community, he said.

China reported the epidemic to the World Health Organization, determined the pathogen, shared the virus' genome sequence, and planned for controlling and treating the disease "at the earliest time possible", Liang said.

"China has provided the scientific basis for the international community to combat COVID-19," he said. The conference was held by the State Council's Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism, the country's COVID control task force.

Liang noted China has provided medical supplies to 153 countries and 15 international organizations, and held more than 300 events on COVID control and treatment alongside about 180 countries and regions and more than 10 international organizations.

China dispatched 37 anti-epidemic expert groups to 34 countries, he said, championed a global effort to develop COVID vaccines and exempt them from intellectual property protections and supplied more than 2.2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to over 120 countries and international organizations.

"In the COVID-19 pandemic, international cooperation has always been a priority for China," he said.