Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday in his first public appearance in two weeks that China’s fight against the coronavirus remains “grim”—but that “we should not be scared by it,” the South China Morning Post reported. Xi said the outbreak is a “major test of the national disease control and prevention centers at all levels in the country” and also praised medical workers battling the disease. Xi was reportedly wearing a mask as he made his remarks at a Chaoyang district disease control office in Beijing in the wake of the death of Li Wenliang—a doctor who tried to warn other medical officials about the virus in the weeks before it was declared an outbreak. “It has shown both the strengths and many shortcomings of the system,” the president told officials, who were also wearing masks. “It’s a harsh time, so I won’t shake your hands now.” Xi said the outbreak’s impact is “only in the short term” and that “we must remain firmly confident about the fundamentally positive outlook of China’s economy in the long term.” The virus, declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization, has sickened more than 40,000 people and has killed more than 910 people.
