Dunedin’s close sister city ties with Shanghai have helped Southern frontline medical professional tap into the knowledge and experience of Chinese medical experts fighting COVID-19.

An online ‘Shanghai – Southern NZ COVID-19 Prevention and Control Video Conference’ took place on 17 April. The conference included specialists such as Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital’s Dr. Xu Jinfu, an expert in respiratory diseases who sits on China’s national Covid-19 directing team.

During the two-hour session Dr Xu Jinfu and the Deputy Director of the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Sun Xiaodong, answered a broad range of questions raised by around 30 frontline medical professionals and staff from Southern DHB.

Topics included tracing suspected cases, testing asymptomatic carriers, improving diagnostic accuracy, enhancing personal protective equipment (PPE) and evaluating cytokine storm (inflammatory responses).

Dunedin City Council’s Enterprise Dunedin Director John Christie, who also attended, says, “This conference underscores the real value of fostering genuinely close international relationships. Dunedin’s sister city relationship with Shanghai includes areas of medical research and, right now, it provides us with access to a level of expertise we may not otherwise have. Sharing knowledge mutually helps with speeding our populations’ and our economies’ recovery from the effects of COVID-19.”

The conference was initiated via sister city ties between Dunedin and Shanghai. It was jointly sponsored by the Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch, Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office, Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, and the Southern District Health Board (SDHB).

Those attending the conference also included:

• Dr. Sun Xiaodong, Deputy Director of Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention (SCDC). Dr. Sun is specialized in prevention of infectious disease, immunity and public health emergency response
• Chairman of the Southern DHB, Dave Cull
• Southern DHB CEO, Chris Fleming.
• The Vice Director General of Shanghai Foreign Affair Office (FAO), Mr. Zhaojian Bei
• Director of FAO of SCDC, Huihong Qiao
• Director of Asian & Oceanian Affairs Division of Shanghai FAO, Mrs. Chun Ni
• Christchurch Consul General, Mr. Zhijian Wang.
• Dunedin City Council’s Enterprise Dunedin, Economic Development Programme Manager, Fraser Liggett
• Dunedin Shanghai Association’s Teresa Chan
• New Zealand–China Non Communicable Diseases Research Collaboration Centre (NCD CRCC), Dr Hu Zhang

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