BEIJING — China highlighted information sharing and international cooperation to contain the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), according to a Chinese official on March 26.

The COVID-19 outbreak presents a challenge for the whole world, requiring joint efforts from the global scientific and technological community as well as the wisdom of the whole society, said Xu Nanping, vice-minister of science and technology, at a press conference.

He noted that the achievements China has made must be shared by all mankind, and sharing scientific data and information is China's fundamental attitude to the COVID-19 control.

According to Xu, China shared the first completed genome sequence of the novel coronavirus on Jan 11, providing basic information for virus research, drug screening and vaccine development.

China also built two platforms to share its scientific proceedings, namely a novel coronavirus data sharing and analysis platform under the National Microbiology Data Center and the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Resource (2019nCoVR) database under the China National Center for Bioinformation.

As of March 25, the 2019nCoVR had provided data service to more than 76,000 visitors from 152 countries and regions, and recorded 4.44 million downloads, said Xu.

He added that researchers in China and abroad have made use of the database and published high-quality research papers on the virus.

According to Xu, the Chinese government encouraged researchers and frontline doctors to publish their findings on international journals in English to facilitate sharing and communication with foreign counterparts.

Chinese researchers have published 54 research papers on prestigious international journals, and a platform for COVID-19 research sharing went online on Chinese Medical Journal Network with more than 700 research papers recording 2.3 million views.

Xu said the achievements can be used for reference in global COVID-19 prevention and control.

Meanwhile, China has established communication mechanisms for COVID-19 prevention and control, such as those with foreign governments and those between non-governmental organizations.

Chinese experts also joined all 10 working groups on the novel coronavirus under the framework of the World Health Organization, having frequent exchanges with their foreign counterparts.

Xu noted that China will share all the clinical trial results of COVID-19 drugs with the world and Chinese researchers are looking forward to launching or participating in more international multi-center clinical trials to identify and fast track promising potential treatments for COVID-19.

He added that leading Chinese frontline expert Zhong Nanshan and his team are currently in an international multi-center clinical trial.