Coronavirus containment- Five things to learn from China

China has successfully contained the coronavirus

China is leading the fight back against COVID-19 pandemic. China is winning preliminary battle against this epidemic. China has successfully contained and controls the epidemic. There is no new domestic case reported since March 19. Some new cases that have been reported in last few days in China are coming from those who arrived in China from different countries.

China has showed us the way to deal with this epidemic. The first case of COVID-19 appeared in the middle of December 2019 in Wuhan city Hubei province. The experts considered it reemergence of SARS. But they immediately realised that it was not SARS. The Chinese government started the fight back with well planned and executed measures and actions.

Li Bijian is the consul general of China in Karachi Consulate. He has told us five things that we can learn from China. He has written an article in The News International and explained the five steps and measures that enable the Chinese government to achieve success against coronavirus. Here are we producing the five important lessons.

1-Leadership and involvement of the government

“Since the outbreak of Covid-19, the Chinese government has adopted the most comprehensive and strictest prevention and control measures under the strong leadership of President Xi Jinping at the core, many of which have far exceeded the requirements of international health regulations.

President Xi made important instructions many times, and went to the front line of Beijing and Wuhan in February and March to inspect, investigate and guide the prevention and control work of the epidemic. He encouraged the Chinese people and brought confidence to the world, which showed the world China's firm determination and strong will to overcome the epidemic.

The Chinese government has taken a series of effective prevention and control measures in a timely and decisive manner and established a nationwide system to provide free medical services for Chinese citizens at all costs, which contributes a lot to preventing the epidemic from spreading worldwide. The preliminary success strongly proves that Covid-19 is preventable, controllable and treatable. The Chinese government is winning a key victory”.

2-Rapid response

“The Chinese government rapidly established an inter-departmental joint prevention and control system. The government mobilized nationwide resources to establish a comprehensive and three-dimensional system from the central to the local governments to prevent and control Covid-19. This included providing free medical services including test, isolation, and treatment for Chinese citizens.

Two temporary specialized hospitals were built in ten days in Wuhan, to provide sufficient medical resources for patients there and prevent the epidemic from spreading worldwide. Due to there being no vaccine and the fact that isolation is the only and most effective way to control and prevent the virus, the government of China took a quick decision to shut down Wuhan city and semi-quarantine major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai etc”.

3-Public awareness

“Public awareness is needed to prevent and control the spread of Covid-19. All families in China were advised to avoid public gatherings and close contact with others and just stay at home, even during the Spring Festival, the most important festival for the Chinese. It is also helpful to wear masks when going outside, wash hands frequently and ventilate more.

The most important is the “Four Early”, which are early detection, early report, early isolation and early treatment. Every citizen in China has obeyed these instructions from the government and the advice of medical experts positively”.

4-Collective participation of all society

“When there's a disaster somewhere, people there will get help from everywhere across the whole country. China dispatched more than four thousand medical personnel from all over the country to assist Hubei, which greatly improved the capacity to treat patients who were critically ill.

China urgently delivered medical supplies such as masks, protective clothing and drugs to the epidemic areas, and ensured the adequate supplies of living materials as well. All the residential communities were motivated to take the responsibility to supervise and govern the residents of their own. Numerous community workers and volunteers actively took part in the prevention and control work for the virus”.

5-International cooperation

After the outbreak of Covid-19, the Chinese government kept the World Health Organization and relevant countries informed of the latest situation of the epidemic in an open, transparent and responsible manner. China has actively responded to the concerns of all parties and strengthened cooperation with the international community.

The Chinese medical experts identified the pathogen in just a week, and shared the gene sequence of the virus with all the parties in time. China has been developing vaccines with other countries around the world to control the epidemic. After the WHO declared the coronavirus as a “pandemic”, China has been working quickly with the relevant countries to jointly deal with the pandemic: share and exchange experience to deal with Covid-19; send medical teams to those countries and regions in need; provide assistance including medicines and other medical materials for epidemic prevention”.