A team of Chinese experts has shared the country's experience in fighting COVID-19 in many parts of Iraq, and worked to come up with prevention and control plans and countermeasures along with their Iraqi counterparts over the past month.

Chinese expert Xu Yonghao demonstrates wearing a protective suit in Baghdad, Iraq, March 10, 2020. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

During this period, the experts traveled to government offices, hospitals and communities throughout Iraq to fight against the virus, sometimes even having to wear bullet-proof vests while traveling through unstable regions.

Chinese experts built a special nucleic acid detection laboratory in two weeks as part of efforts to improve the region’s currently insufficient testing capability, said Xu Yonghao, member of the expert team and doctor of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University.

Xu added that the number of people that can be detected daily has gone from 200 to more than 1,000. After training, the Iraqi technicians are now able to independently complete test operations.

Furthermore, in light of local conditions, the Chinese team has also proposed using CT scans to screen suspected patients, and is assisting the Iraqi side in rebuilding a CT laboratory and training the relevant personnel, a move that was warmly welcomed by the locals.

The guidance of Chinese experts has provided Iraqi people valuable help in preventing and controlling the epidemic, said Arthur Adnan, director of the radiology department of Baghdad Teaching Hospital, noting that the exchanges with Chinese experts have not only enriched their understanding of how to prevent and treat COVID-19, but also helped enhance the friendship between the experts from these two countries.

Hand in hand with our Chinese friends, we have the confidence to contain the outbreak, said Adnan.