BEIJING: No one in the world would have imagined they had to live through difficult times amid the coronavirus pandemic that has completely changed the way we live. When many Chinese people thought they had successfully contained the outbreak in mid-March, they didn’t expect to see more and more countries later engulfed in this “war against the virus”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently made a rare emotional appeal, calling for tougher measures for Christmas social distancing while the single-day death in the US caused by COVID-19 has exceeded that of the 9/11, a much deeper reflection is necessary on this virus battle.
Before Miguel Moreira, a Portuguese football coach, took a chartered flight in February from China to Portugal, he had already experienced the lockdown in Wuhan, capital city of Central China’s Hubei Province that first reported the coronavirus case a year ago. As he understood how strict preventive measures authorities in Wuhan took, including mandatory mask-wearing, social distancing and rigorous quarantine, which proved to be effective in containing community outbreak, Moreira said he developed the habit of wearing a mask, washing hands and disinfecting frequently. “The Portuguese government didn’t ask us to quarantine, but I took the initiative to do so. It was in Portugal that I felt how right the Chinese government’s decision was to lock down the city,” he told the Global Times in a recent interview in Wuhan. Portugal imposed its first ever state of emergency on March 19, ending in early May after two extensions. With the arrival of the second wave of outbreak as the weather becomes cold, Portugal again declared a 15-day state of emergency on November 9.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
