After numerous requests from overseas, many hospitals in Zhejiang province recently shared their experiences of treating COVID-19.

A doctor from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in Britain called the First Affiliated Hospital of School of Medicine in Zhejiang University on March 11, asking for advice about treating a COVID-19 patient who was sent to intensive care a couple of hours after being admitted due to the worsening of the illness.

Many medical experts from the Zhejiang hospital participated in the remote consultation and gave their advice, which was commended by the doctor as being very helpful.

On March 13, a video seminar was held between medics from Hangzhou, Wuhan, Ireland and Britain to discuss prevention and control of the epidemic.

The seminar was organized by the Second Affiliated Hospital of the School of Medicine at Zhejiang University two days after the hospital received a letter from Doctor Oisín J. O'Connell at the Bon Secours hospital in Ireland who wanted to learn from the experience of the Zhejiang hospital about rapidly allocating resources, giving sound medical training and conducting effective epidemic prevention and control.

Wang Jian'an, director of the Zhejiang hospital, explained many measures that China has taken, such as wearing face masks, washing hands frequently, avoiding gatherings and putting suspected patients in quarantine at home. He also gave details of the health code launched in Hangzhou.

To O'Connell's question about what specific protective gear to wear in different scenarios, Wang explained three kinds of protective gear for different clinical rooms, wards and other job locations.

Some doctors from the Zhejiang hospital and those who went to help Wuhan hospitals answered questions about specific therapies.

On March 12, Ge Huiqing, director of the department of respiratory diseases at the Shaoyifu Hospital Affiliated with School of Medicine at Zhejiang University, accepted an invitation from the World Health Organization to participate in an international telephone conference about epidemic control.

Ge has been helping hospitals in Jingmen, Hubei province, for more than a month, and has abundant experience in treating critically ill COVID-19 patients

At the conference, Ge shared her advice about how to treat those patients.

"Our hospital has accumulated a lot of experience in preventing and treating the disease, and we are willing to share this with our counterparts all over the world," said Ge.