Ma Xiaowei, minister of China's National Health Commission (NHC), spoke over the phone with World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sept 30 to exchange views on the latest progress of COVID-19 prevention and control and bilateral cooperation.

Ma said that since the COVID-19 outbreak, the NHC and the WHO have been in close communication and collaboration. At present, China is pushing forward precise regular epidemic prevention and control as well as the resumption of work and production, and the situation has been stabilized and consolidated.

He said that China has been actively engaged in anti-pandemic cooperation with the international community, including the WHO, in various aspects, such as COVID-19 prevention and control, virus origin tracing and vaccine research and development. Moreover, WHO experts have visited China twice for open and in-depth exchanges which led to important consensuses.

China is continuing to promote retrospective study on coronavirus origin tracing and is willing to further strengthen communication and cooperation with the WHO, said Ma.

Tedros hailed China's remarkable achievements in fighting the pandemic, appreciated China for its strong support for the WHO, and praised the effective cooperation between the two sides, including the country’s ongoing study of COVID-19 origin tracing.

Both sides agreed to continue international cooperation on the science of that tracing, and Tedros said the WHO will provide China with updates in its global tracing study.

Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also participated in the talks.