SEOUL, March 26 (Xinhua) -- China's experience and lessons, earned by overcoming the COVID-19 outbreak, will contribute to stemming the spread of the coronavirus across the world, says one expert.
"If China's experience and lessons are shared with the international society, it will contribute to prevailing over the COVID-19 outbreak early," Lee Hee-ok, a professor of political science at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, told Xinhua ahead of a Group of 20 (G20) video conference on Thursday.
"China has effectively enforced quarantine measures based on its experience and lessons learned from the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)" back in 2003-04, Lee said.
The professor noted that although China's quarantine model may not be directly adopted by other countries, it could offer inspiration for those working to overcome their own outbreaks.
Furthermore, China could propose at the G20 quarantine steps that countries could jointly adopt to combat the virus' spread around the globe, the professor noted.
"An infectious disease is a common enemy that harms people around the world regardless of nationality and border," said Lee.
"It cannot be resolved by the power of a single country. Every country with a shared future in the fight against the infectious disease will join hands and form a single community," Lee noted.
He said each country will be required to minimize the economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak through cooperation.
Lee praised the World Health Organization (WHO), saying the global anti-epidemic body rapidly made public information on the COVID-19 to help the international community stay informed of the virus' spread.
The WHO also played an organizing role in combatting the COVID-19 outbreak by offering guidelines to contain the outbreak, he said.
Lee said G20 countries and other international organizations should respect science and the opinions of experts regarding quarantine measures, while refraining from political rhetoric and any attempt to pass the buck to someone else.
Lee said it would be wrong to call the COVID-19 outbreak the China or Wuhan virus because it would contradict WHO recommendations.
