President Alvi leaves for China on two-day visit

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday left for China on a two-day visit where he will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. 

Speaking to the media before departure, the President said he is undertaking the visit to express solidarity with the Chinese leadership and people and appreciate their efforts to handle the coronavirus. 

President Alvi said that he will express condolence and show solidarity with the Chinese leadership over the loss of precious human lives due to the virus. He said the visit will also provide an opportunity to learn from the Chinese experience to control the coronavirus.

A delegation including Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, and other senior officials accompanied the president.

During the visit, a number of MoUs are expected to be signed. This will be Dr Arif Alvi’s first trip to China, which is especially aimed at conveying strong support of Pakistan towards the people of China.

It may be mentioned that China has been the worst affected country from the novel coronavirus but has made steady progress to turn the tide against the outbreak.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported 10,982 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease across the world with 343 people died, which brought the total death toll to 5,375 during the past 24 hours.

According to WHO, the total number of people, who were diagnosed with COVID-19, has jumped 153,517. While the number of confirmed cases outside China is 72,469.

The new coronavirus was first emerged in China’s Hubei province Wuhan, in December 2019, and has since spread worldwide. Earlier, the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.