Day: April 13, 2021

(Xinhua)10:09, September 05, 2020

HONG KONG, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) — The ongoing universal screening helps Hong Kong to break through the bottleneck of testing work of COVID-19, Gabriel Leung, an adviser to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on COVID-19, told Xinhua on Friday.

Leung, also Dean of Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, said that the HKSAR governments Universal Community Testing Program can help address the problem of inadequate testing in Hong Kong since the COVID-19 outbreak.

He expected Hong Kong to have a fourth or even fifth wave in autumn and winter, when vaccine supplies may not be available. Therefore, preparations should be made in advance and the program can help enhance the screening and to clear off the third wave of the epidemic.

The program was launched on Tuesday by the HKSAR government. As of 8 p.m. local time Friday, about 953,000 persons had made appointments and about 284,800 samples collected had been tested, according to the HKSAR government.

Eight samples were tested positive so far. Among them, four were previously confirmed cases, and the other four were new cases. Leung said if the whole population of 7.5 million people in Hong Kong were tested, it is expected that about 400 silent carriers would be found out, in which about 140 of them have second-generation transmission capability.

The more people are tested, the faster the second-generation transmission chain can be found, he stressed, urging the public to actively participate in the screening program so as to end the third wave as soon as possible.

(Xinhua)10:37, September 05, 2020

BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) — The National Health Commission said Saturday that 21 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery on the Chinese mainland Friday.

There were 194 patients still being treated, including two in severe condition, the commission said in its daily report.

Altogether 80,284 patients had been cured and discharged from hospitals by the end of Friday, the report said.

As of Friday, a total of 85,112 confirmed COVID-19 cases had been reported on the mainland, among whom 4,634 died of the disease.

(Xinhua)10:38, September 05, 2020

BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) — Around 94.5 percent of working young people in China said they maintain the habit of learning after graduation, according to a recent survey by the China Youth Daily.

Men reported a higher participation rate in informal learning than women, said the newspaper, as 95.3 percent of young men in the survey have continued to expand their knowledge after completing formal education.

A breakdown of the data showed that 64.9 percent of the respondents take online courses or purchase pay-for-knowledge products, 63.5 percent engage in self-directed reading and 60.7 percent pursue professional certifications.

In the survey, 97 percent of the respondents identified with the concept of lifelong learning, and 97.6 percent acknowledged its importance for personal development.

Lifelong learning leads to more opportunities and room for personal development, develops higher competence in the workplace and allows learners to keep in step with the times, among other benefits, according to the respondents.

The survey was conducted among 1,966 young Chinese people in the workplace. Among them, 52.9 percent are male and 47.1 percent are female.

(China Daily)10:39, September 05, 2020

The United States is destroying multilateralism and ending international rules by imposing sanctions on two officials of the International Criminal Court over an investigation into whether US forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan, Beijing said on Friday.

The US is placing its own interests above international law, and its diplomacy has fallen to that of sanctions, threats and intimidation, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily news conference.

The US announced the sanctions on ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and the ICCs Head of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division Phakiso Mochochoko on Wednesday, which were followed by criticisms from the ICC and the European Union.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the United Nations secretary-general, also said the UN will continue to closely follow developments on this matter, according to a UN news report.

Such reactions show that US bullying is being ever more strongly rejected by more and more members of the international community, Hua said.

In another development, Hua said on Friday that China is following closely the financial difficulties the UN is facing, as well as the impact that it may have on the UNs work, as the institution prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary.

As the second largest contributor to the UNs regular budget, China has fully paid its membership dues for this year and has always fully implemented its financial obligations to the UN, Hua said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a letter to the 193 UN member nations that the UN is facing a cash crisis because of nonpayment of dues by member states, The Associated Press reported in April.

The US is the largest country in terms of unpaid dues to the UN, which have taken up more than two thirds of the unpaid dues by all countries, Hua said.

This is the major reason for the UNs financial difficulties, she said.

It is in line with the interests of all parties to stick to multilateralism, maintain the core role of the UN in international affairs and tackle global challenges through unity and cooperation, Hua said, adding that China hopes to work with all countries to let the UN play a bigger role in promoting world peace and development.

Regarding an update the US has issued on its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, Hua said that Washington should stop blaming others for its mistakes in controlling COVID-19, which disrupts international efforts to tackle the pandemic and seriously impacts developing countries in urgent need of international support.

In the update issued on Thursday, the US said the WHO has failed badly in COVID-19 responses and declined to adopt reforms, starting with demonstrating its independence from the Communist Party of China.

China has made huge sacrifices to control COVID-19 in the shortest time possible, while the US, which could have done better, had seen its diagnosed cases exceeding 6.1 million by Thursday, Hua said.

The US should reflect upon itself more and take more effective measures to save lives, Hua said, adding that its impossible for the WHO, which has more than 190 member states, to serve only a certain country.

To crackdown on or blackmail the WHO means to ignore life, challenge humanitarianism and disrupt international cooperation to tackle the pandemic, she said.

(Peoples Daily Online)16:40, August 18, 2020

Triplet sisters in Jianhe county, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China鈥檚 Guizhou Province, got similar scores on the Gaokao, China鈥檚 national college entrance exam, and were all admitted to the same university, the WeChat account of Sichuan Daily reported on Aug. 15.

(Photo/Sichuan Daily)

The minimum score for admission to the first batch of universities for undergraduate education in Sichuan province is 529 and 527 respectively for science and liberal arts students.

Yang Wenyao, Yang Wenyan, and Yang Wenxin, the three sisters, scored 616, 621, and 615 in this year鈥檚 Gaokao, which ended a month ago. All admitted to Sichuan University in Chengdu, capital of southwest China鈥檚 Sichuan province, the excellent scores have brought great joy to their family.

The eldest sister, Yang Wenyao, and the youngest sister, Yang Wenxin, were admitted to the civil engineering program of the College of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, while the middle sister, Yang Wenyan, is going to major in preventive medicine at the university.

鈥淲e definitely had not discussed with each other before applying for the college,鈥?disclosed the three sisters, saying that each of them filled out the applications online for the college they wanted to go to on their own without discussing with each other which university they would apply for.

鈥淭hey always came to and left school together,鈥?said Yang Jiguang, a high school teacher in charge of the class of the eldest and middle sister, adding that the three girls have always had great school performance and that such great scores are the result of their earnest attitude towards learning and their good learning habits.