The Chinese Cultural Center in Cairo has launched an online competition to raise awareness among Egyptians to combat the novel coronavirus, which has posed a major challenge to the entire world.
The center organized the competition in cooperation with the Egyptian branch of the Chinese institution Wisdom House for Cultural Industries, under the title "scientific prevention and joint struggle against the virus and protection of global health."
The competition, which is held on the Facebook page of the Chinese Cultural Center in Cairo, includes a set of questions about the coronavirus and ways to avoid, prevent and deal with it.
Winners will get prizes from a number of online shopping platforms as well as a Chinese language course provided by the Chinese Cultural Center.
Shi Yuewen, minister counselor for cultural affairs of the Chinese Embassy in Egypt and director of the Chinese Cultural Center in Cairo, said the competition, which will run until April 22, is meant to increase health awareness about the virus.
"We aim at conveying the Chinese experience in fighting the coronavirus to the Egyptian public through a series of questions," Shi told Xinhua.
Since the outbreak of the virus, he said, all countries have experienced so many challenges for the lack of awareness and knowledge of how to deal with the epidemic.
Meanwhile, Ahmed al-Saeed, chief of the Egyptian branch of Wisdom House, said his institution is proud to be part of the competition.
"The competition also aims to expose rumors about COVID-19 and introduce the epidemic in a correct scientific manner from reliable sources," al-Saeed told Xinhua.
He highlighted the importance of learning from the Chinese experience in combating the virus, as well as the need to avoid panic caused by public unawareness of the virus.
Egypt, a country with a population of 100 million people, has so far confirmed 609 COVID-19 cases, including 40 deaths.
The country has been recently taking strict preventive measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, including night-time curfew, closure of schools and universities, suspending flights, reducing employees and sterilizing public transport vehicles, government offices, hotels and tourist attractions.
Egypt also shut down mosques and churches nationwide, while coffee shops, clubs, malls, restaurants and other entertainment places were told to close from early evening to early morning over coronavirus concerns.
Many of the Egyptians who participated in the competition believe the initiative is very useful and informative.
"The competition is very valuable and important ... I believe it will witness a great interaction from citizens of different nationalities residing in Egypt," Ahmed Mohammed, one of the winners, told Xinhua.
Mohammed, who works for a tourism agency and learns Chinese language at the Chinese Cultural Center, said the competition is an opportunity to encourage people to read more about coronavirus from reliable sources.
For his part, Mohammed Tareq, a 23-year-old Chinese language translator, said he has learned much about the virus and preventive measures to avoid infection through the competition.
"It is a very smart idea to start such a competition on social media where millions of people can pick up the information effortlessly," Tareq, also a winner, told Xinhua.
