Thanks to the unprecedented measure taken by the Chinese government in imposing large-scale quarantine, the COVID-19 outbreak in China has now been brought under effective control initially. According to the official data released by the National Health Commission of China, the total number of new confirmed cases in China is falling gradually from the peak of 15,152 on February 12th to 406 on February 25th. In other Chinese provinces than Hubei, the daily number of new confirmed cases has been on a decline from the peak of 890 on February 3rd to 5 on February 25th.
However, the epidemic has begun to spread worldwide. The number of confirmed cases has reached 322 so far in Italy amid the appearance of new cases in a number of other European countries, including France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Spain. For the past few days, the number of persons infected by COVID-19 has been on a rise in South Korea and Japan. By 9 a.m. on February 26th, the cumulative number of confirmed cases already reached 1,146 in South Korea, where the epidemic has developed from the stage of overseas inflow to infection within communities. According to the reports of NHK, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Japan increased to 861 by 8 p.m. on February 25th local time.
These data seem to be proving the warning given not long ago by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: The COVID-19 outbreak outside China may be just a tip of an iceberg. Faced with the outbreak, all countries need to take active measures. Since the situation in China has taken an obvious turn for the better, the effective measures and experience of China in responding to the outbreak are worth learning and drawing on. COVID-19 broke out during the Spring Festival, thus causing a grim situation. The 34 provincial-level administrative regions of China launched level-1 response one after another. Under the government publicity, the common Chinese people have taken the matter very seriously. They gave up the reunion with relatives and friends, stopped recreational activities and chose to stay at home to watch the epidemic prevention programs. They urged their own family members to wear masks, take preventive measures and strengthen the idea about a healthy life. On Twitter, netizens joked that, by living in home quarantine, they “could make contributions to the state while lying in bed”. Additionally, many people worked as volunteers and took part in the prevention and control efforts, e.g. sterilization, persuasion and provision of help to the field workers. They also cooperated with the government by rationally criticizing and supervising its work.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government has achieved again nationwide coordination in prevention and control of the epidemic by leveraging its capability for efficient organization and execution.
To ease the tight supply of medical resources in Hubei, 217 medical teams including 25,633 members were sent to Hubei from all the other parts of the country by 24:00 on February 14th, excluding those from the PLA. The figure is in addition to 3 mobile P3 laboratories. Specifically, there are 181 medical teams including 20,374 members are in Wuhan, plus 36 teams including 5259 members in the other cities of the province.
(Source of data: http://live.weibo.com/show?id=1042152:01a1cf8e90721664531ae9c7bfb014d6)
In Wuhan, the outbreak center of the epidemic, the number of confirmed cases reached 37,448 by 24:00 on February 20th. To realize the complete acceptance of confirmed patients, suspected patients, fever patients, and close contacts, Wuhan built two regular hospitals in just a dozen days, set up 13 mobile cabin hospitals and opened a number of centralized quarantine sites throughout the city. By doing so, Wuhan ensured to provide 24,104 beds in designated and increased hospitals, 12666 beds in the cabin hospitals and 69351 in the quarantine sites. In the future, the city will increase the number of cabin hospitals by 19 to resume the normal work of the other departments of its hospitals.
(Source of data: https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1659053261184193759&wfr=spider&for=pc)
China is sparing no effort to control the global spreading of COVID-19. Its Ministry of Finance has set up the system for the everyday reporting of the funds spent on the prevention and control of the epidemic by the national financial sector and the tracking of local funds. By February 13th, the financial expenditure at all levels has reached 80.55 billion yuan, including 17.29 billion yuan from the Chinese Government.
(Source of data: https://m.21jingji.com/article/20200214/herald/eb907f1fd41787629d243c8cc22678ea.html)
Given today’s globalization, the countries of the world form a closely linked community. Epidemic prevention and control as well as emergency management constitute a cross-border challenge and require all countries to make a coordinated response. We believe that a favorable turn will be just around the corner by drawing on the effective experience already accumulated and the initiatives already taken by China.
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