An online conference was held between Guangzhou and Kyiv, the capital of the Ukraine, on May 14th, during which health professionals from both cities shared COVID-19 treatment experiences. The meeting is considered to be an important step in strengthening the relationship between the two cities.

Dmytro Kamkov, Acting Consul General of Ukraine in Guangzhou, Tu Hongzhe, Senior Consultant of Guangzhou Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) as well as experts from the Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital and representatives of 7 hospitals from across Kyiv participated in the meeting.

According to Tu Hongzhe, Guangzhou had reported a total number of 505 confirmed cases as of May 13th, of which 349 are local patients, 128 are imported cases and 28 are locally transmitted cases related to the imported cases. There is just one patient under treatment in the hospital while others have already been discharged.

“Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital has treated more than 89 percent of the infected patents in the city and their recovery rate exceeds 99 percent,” said Tu, “the hospital has hard won experience from these cases so I believe the meeting will contribute to the fight against the virus in Kyiv.”

During the two-hour meeting, health professionals from Guangzhou answered a series of questions from Kyiv, digging into treatment on patients who are pregnant or have HIV and details about incubation, blood plasma treatment, and the effectiveness of chloroquine among other topics.

“When we released the first draft of the question list from the Ukrainian side, we found the list was too long for one meeting so we retained 10-12 major questions and hope that we have time to discuss the others,” said Dmytro Kamkov, “Guangzhou proposed the idea to tighten the relationship with Kyiv. I think the two cities have great potential to further cooperation, especially in the scientific, economic, tourism, culture sectors, and this online conference is the first step.”

Mykyta Martynov, Consular Agent of the Consulate General of Ukraine in Guangzhou, Mariya Adomantis, Deputy Director of the Kyiv Foreign Affairs Office and Valentyna Hinzburg, Chief of Kyiv Health Bureau also attended the meeting.

According to the Guangzhou Health Commission and Guangzhou FAO, the city has organized 8 online conferences to share experience with other countries as well as its sister cities and international organizations such as United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).