Chongqing - The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) Southwest Chapter and Raffles Hospital Chongqing organized a special seminar on May 14 to educate and inform the foreigners living here on Covid-19 vaccination and health screening. Some 20 foreign English teachers and members of the EUCCC attended the event, which was hosted at the main building of Raffles Hospital Chongqing.

Titled "What Is An Effective Health Screening Method & Interpretation of COVID-19 Vaccination for Foreigners in Chongqing," the seminar mainly included a guided tour of Raffles Hospital Chongqing, a welcoming speech by Ms. Kelen Leong Choy Fun, general manager of Raffles Hospital Chongqing, a lecture by Dr. Howard H. W. Chan, deputy medical director of Raffles Hospital Chongqing, and a Q&A session where Dr. Chan answered questions from attendees on the current Covid-19 vaccination policy for foreigners in Chongqing.

Raffles Hospital Chongqing is the city's first international general hospital and a medical insurance designated hospital, which adopts a hotel-like management style and boasts a floor area of over 110,000 square meters. "Our state-of-the-air facilities enable us to provide high-quality treatment, healthcare, nursing, and health management services to foreigners and residents in local and surrounding areas, as well as patients from outside China," introduced Ms. Leong in her opening remarks. "We also cooperated with many well-known insurance companies at home and abroad to support direct payment for insured patients."

Then Dr. Chan gave a lecture about the increasing market demand of people to spend more on monitoring and improving their health status. "Most of us are familiar with health screening, yet based on the international standards, is health screening a real necessity? Do we have to go abroad to do health screening?" after asking the very first questions, he went on to explain the differences between evidence-based health screening and traditional health screening. 

With all that being said, Dr. Chan soon moved on to explain the current Covid-19 vaccination policy for foreigners. The Municipal Health Commission issued the plan for foreigners living, working, or studying in the city to get vaccinated in early April. Raffles Hospital Chongqing is one of the only two officially designated sites for foreigners to get vaccinated. However, currently, there aren't many foreigners eager to get vaccinated due to a lack of vaccination information; Dr. Chan's lecture helped them better understand the related safety issues and risks of taking a Chinese vaccine.

The seminar concluded with a Q&A session where Dr. Chan answered questions from the attending foreigners, made suggestions to their travel plans, and shared lessons and experiences on better protecting themselves amid the ongoing pandemic.