11 May 2020

An African businessman in Guangzhou praised the city's impressive record of COVID-19 response while urging people to take what they have seen on the social media with a grain of salt.

After finishing a home quarantine on the weekend, the first thing Wamala Charles could not wait to do was to buy a pair of hair scissors.

The Ugandan businessman received a nucleic acid test recently and began the 14-day quarantine after coming back to Guangzhou from his home country.

Charles said his life of quarantine in Guangzhou, capital city of south China's Guangdong Province was rather fulfilling.

He had spent lots of time in reading, blogging, and chatting with friends back in Africa via social messaging apps.

"I came back to China as many cities outside of Hubei province began to resume work," Charles said, adding that China's quick moves and great progress gained him confidence to fly back.

"The move by the city of Guangzhou to contain COVID-19 is impressive and nucleic acid testing and quarantine are absolutely necessary given the global pandemic situation," he said.

Charles has been living and working for 11 years in Guangzhou where he runs a furniture business.

Guangzhou boasts a history of exchange with the outside world, trading along the Belt and Road for more than 2,000 years. Many foreigners have studied and lived in the city over the years.

Official data showed that as of April 10, there were 30,768 foreigners living in Guangzhou.

"It is our responsibility to cooperate with local authorities as the virus is not entirely curbed," he said, adding that China has done a good job in containing the virus.

In an online interview with Xinhua, Charles said he never received any unfair treatment, but many fake news and rumours went viral on the social media.

"Some people cannot identify what is real online, which leads to their misunderstanding of testing and quarantine," he said. He noted that China and Africa have forged a solid relationship for decades, and friendship between the two sides shall never be clouded by rumours.

As Guangzhou reported imported COVID-19 cases and related local infections due to the global spread, the city stepped up preventive measures on all inbound passengers.

As of Sunday, Guangzhou had reported a total of 125 imported confirmed COVID-19 cases, 25 of whom were foreigners, according to the municipal health commission on Monday. Ends