I wanna wish everyone in China a very happy lunar new year.
Just as the tiger symbolizes vitality and health, our foundation has continued work over this past year for world where everyone has the chance to live a healthy and productive life, no matter where in the world they are.
The recent troubling and highly contagious omicron variant means the Covid-19 pandemic is not yet over.
Since the onset of the pandemic, China has worked hard to not only contain the virus, but also contributed to closing the equity gap by supporting other countries with many different supplies, including great vaccines.
This work is thanks to incredible efforts by many inspiring individuals and organizations.
I'm hopeful that by the end of this new year, the covid pandemic will largely be over.
I was also thrilled to hear the news that in June the WHO had recognized China's remarkable success in defeating malaria declaring the country officially free from the disease.
Here again, we're seeing China paying it forward by contributing towards efforts to achieve the global eradication of malaria.
Although it's been another challenging year, I wanna celebrate the progress that our Chinese partners had made, working alongside the foundation in fighting Covid-19, combating malaria, strengthening health systems in African countries and ensuring more people in China and around the world benefit from life-saving innovation.
Because of these efforts more people in China are getting vaccinated against cervical cancer and other infective diseases.
