Medical workers inject medicine for Li Zuofan, right, at an intensive care ward of the novel coronavirus infection cases at a branch of Tongji Hospital affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province, Feb 18, 2020. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

President Xi Jinping said on Friday positive developments in the fight against novel coronavirus pneumonia in China have been expanding thanks to the country's arduous efforts.

Xi made the remark in telephone call with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera. He said that the epidemic is a major health emergency and that the "ferocity of the virus, the scale and magnitude of its spread, and the resulting pressure faced by the whole of society, are unprecedented" since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.

Positive developments in the fight against novel coronavirus pneumonia in China have been expanding thanks to the country's arduous efforts, Xi said

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China has the confidence and capability to win the battle against the virus, Xi said.

Also on Friday night, while speaking to his Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz-Canel over the phone, Xi said China highly appreciated the understanding and support from Cuba and the Cuban president himself.

Xi mentioned that Raul Castro, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and Diaz-Canel had expressed their sympathies at the start of the outbreak, and the Cuban president also went to the Chinese embassy in Cuba to express support for China. This fully shows the traditional friendship between China and Cuba, Xi said.

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Cuba has shown respect for and cooperation with China's epidemic control work by maintaining normal communication and cooperation between the two countries in accordance with the professional advice of the World Health Organization, he added.