Italian professor, Serbian students thank China for virus aid

A professor from Italy at Nankai University and Serbian students sent video messages to the university to express their gratitude to China for the country's aid to Italy and Serbia to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Francesco Di Iorio, an associate professor at the Philosophy College of Nankai University, flew to Rome in mid-January. He is quarantined at home in a small village in central Italy and expects to return to China when the country's current the virus outbreak and lockdown end.

"I learned from the media that China is lending aid to Italy, so I really feel grateful and appreciate the Chinese doctors who are cooperating with Italian doctors," he said.

He told Nankai's campus TV station that many Italian television outlets broadcast videos on Chinese and Italian doctors working together in the country and many local Italians have expressed gratitude to China.

Katarina Petkovi?, from Serbia, a 2019 graduate of the Zhou Enlai School of Governance at Nankai University, said she was impressed by Chinese aid to the country, which is just a little bigger than the municipality of Chongqing with half the population of the municipality of Tianjin.

She said she shared some of the latest information about China's aid to the country on her social media accounts and her Serbian friends, who are also are students in China, joined her to shoot a video expressing their thanks to China.

They spoke their appreciation in Chinese and used a popular Chinese song as background music for the video.

She said China is her "second home country" and she is applying for a master's degree there.

To date, the Chinese government has provided aid to 89 countries and four international organizations to battle the novel coronavirus outbreak and is planning further support, a senior official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.

A large shipment of medical equipment for fighting COVID-19 arrived in Belgrade from China on Thursday.

The shipment included clinical and portable ventilators, masks, suits and testing kits, part of which were donated by China and companies there, said Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, who went to airport to welcome the critical shipment.

Chinese companies donated equipment worth several million euros, she said.

As of Friday, China has aided the country with 3.84 million of facial masks, according to Xinhua.

Also on Thursday, China's sent a fourth team with 160 experts to Italy to help.

Since March 12, the country has sent 36 medical experts with a number of medical facilities, millions of facial masks, protective cloths and traditional Chinese medicines to Italy, according to People's Daily.

China has sent medical experts to Iran, Iraq, Italy, Serbia and Cambodia to help them fight the virus.