Addressing COVID-19 challenge requires international cooperation

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The COVID-19 outbreak has swept across countries and regions outside China far more quickly than it did with the country. Within a week, Italy, Korea and Iran have seen the highest numbers of confirmed novel coronavirus cases outside of China, each approaching 10,000.

The rising numbers have led the Italian government to lock down the entire country on Monday night.

China's close neighbor Japan was one of the earliest countries to report COVID-19 cases outside China and has since reported more than 1,000 cases. In an editorial titled "Covid-19: too little, too late?" international medical journal The Lancet said countries should have learned from China's response to the outbreak despite differences in their political and economic systems, echoing reports made by the World Health Organization (WHO).

CGTN's World Insight brought together doctors and scholars from the four countries most affected in the global battle against the novel coronavirus in a special program - The Front Line.

Dr Zhou Ning, a cardiologist at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic in China, who has has been treating patients with severe symptoms in the ICU for more than a month, is one of them.

Giovanni Rezza, the director of the infectious-disease department at the Italian National Institute of Health, joins the discussion from Rome. Dr Alice Hyun-Kyung Tan, who has been working with COVID-19 patients at MizMedi Women's Hospital, participates from Seoul Korea, and professor Koji Wada of the International University of Health and Welfare, joins from Tokyo, Japan. The professor was involved in handling the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship and has continued to help the Japanese government analyze the epidemic.

World Insight with Tian Wei is an international platform for debate and intelligent discussion. It is the meeting point of both the highly influential and rising voices, facilitated by host Tian Wei. It provides nutrition to form your own thoughts and ideas through a live 45-minute debate and interviews.

Schedule: Monday-Saturday

Time (GMT): 1415, 2015

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