Officials and health experts from sister cities Shenzhen and Barcelona hold a video conference to strengthen cooperation in containing the COVID-19 pandemic on April 7, 2020. [Photo/sznews.com]

Officials and health experts from sister cities Shenzhen and Barcelona held a video conference to strengthen cooperation in containing the COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday.

As of Wednesday, Spain had reported 146,690 cases, second only to the United States. Of those cases, about 14,555, or roughly 10 percent, have died of it, just behind Italy.

In the video conference, the participant from Barcelona raised questions in five areas — social governance, supplies, emergency measures, treatment, hospitalization and protection of medical personnel.

Participants from Shenzhen shared the city's experience in those areas and vowed to provide more of the medical supplies that are essential to protecting the health of medical workers in Barcelona by the middle of this month. Shenzhen is dramatically boosting its production of such materials.

Shenzhen has also pledged to provide assistance to its 38 sister cities in 23 countries by mid-April.

Shenzhen had a similar video conference with Poznan, its sister city in Poland, on March 26, the first time the city in South China's Guangdong province had taken the initiative to share its experience in pandemic control with other countries through video conference.