The National Health Commission said China has reported 63 new confirmed cases on Wednesday, April 8. It should be noted that new infections have fallen from their peak in February after the Chinese authority locked down several cities and imposed strict travel restrictions. Now the concern is to try and prevent asymptomatic "silent carriers" of Novel Coronavirus from causing a second wave of infections in the country.
Meanwhile, 13 volunteers have been selected out of 209 candidates from China and all over the world to translate a book introducing treatment solutions for the Coronavirus patients and sharing Chinese front-line medical workers' comprehensive knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new approach to defeat Coronavirus
Zhang Yongbin, deputy editor-in-chief of Fudan University Press recently revealed that the participants will be translating two chapters involving around 15,000 Chinese characters in the book into English within a week. The transcribed book 'COVID-19, From Basics To Clinical Practice,' is expected to be published in May 2020.
This book includes epidemiological characteristics and the latest research as well as clinical experience, diagnosis and treatment related to Novel Coronavirus, which has infected more than 1,484,800 people and killed over 88,500 globally.
As reported by China Daily, the book, compiled by a team led by the director of the department of infectious diseases at Shanghai Huashan Hospital, Zhang Wenhong, who also led the Shanghai team of experts in the treatment of Coronavirus cases, was published in late March in Chinese and the authors decided to grant free copyright to foreign publishers to support countries affected by the pandemic.
As per Zhang Yongbin, along with English, the authorities have decided to translate the book into French, German, Spanish, Italian and Persian. In addition, he also clarified that to find success within a limited time the search for volunteers who will be translating the book should be done.
Translating COVID-19 book
Since March 27 when the press started looking for volunteers, they received over 600 emails, resumes and trial translations. Zhang said,"Altogether, we received emails from self-recommenders specializing in 18 foreign languages. They come from all over the country as well as from some foreign countries, including US, UK, Spain, Australia and Egypt."
While 30 percent of these applicants are university students, one in 10 are either doctors, medical students or people with medical background. There are some other applicants who are professional interpreters and language teachers.
Volunteering to translate Chinese Coronavirus book
It should be mentioned that one of the applicants, 24-year-old Jia Huei Chen-Xu is a medical student from Spain, who has volunteered to translate the manuscript from Chinese to Spanish. As per Huei, she was impressed by a chapter in the book that gives a clear detail on which receptors in the body react to the COVID-19. She believes that such information will help researchers to get a new insight.
In addition, she also mentioned that "the book also detailed personal protective equipment for doctors and nurses, an imperative issue in many Western countries. For example, around one in seven of the 140,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Spain are medical workers."
However, currently Shanghai-based Fudan University Press said they are in the middle of discussion with six publishers about the Coronavirus book which also includes Germany-based Springer, India-based Royal Collins and UK-based Taylor & Francis.
Zhang Yongbin said,"In choosing a collaborator, we will consider their level of interest and how fast they could cooperate with publishing the books. It usually takes at least two months to introduce an imported book, but we want to cut that in half."
