China's Strategies and Actions Against COVID-19 and Key Insights
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China’s Strategies and Actions Against COVID-19 and Key Insights Liu Chen Chen Xiao Working Paper CIKD-WP-2020-006 EN China’s Strategies and Actions Against COVID-19 and Key Insights Liu Chen Chen Xiao Author Bios Liu Chen is a Project Officer of China Center for International Knowledge on Development (CIKD). Chen Xiao is an Assistant Research Fellow of CIKD. Acknowledgement Many thanks to the colleagues in CIKD who provided very good suggestions and comments during the research. Disclaimer The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of CIKD. Contents Executive Summary ..................................................................................... i 1. Overall Strategy ...................................................................................... 2 1) Constantly refine the strategies based on the latest risk assessment and development trend of the epidemic ............................................. 2 2) Adhere to the people-centered concept, prioritize the protection of people’s right to life and health in a major epidemic, ensure the public’s right to know, and mobilize the people to participate widely ................. 9 3) Adopt the most rigorous, most comprehensive, and most complete principles and objectives .................................................................. 11 2. Key Measures ........................................................................................ 12 1) Establish national-level command and decision-making institutions for emergency management and a cross-department coordination mechanism ........................................................................................ 12 2) Promptly disseminate accurate information and relevant prevention knowledge via various channels ....................................................... 13 3) Close public places, pause most economic and social activities and require to wear masks in public, to reduce the risk of social clustered transmission ...................................................................................... 16 4) Take rigorous lock-down measures in multiple levels of cities and communities to break transmission chain ........................................ 18 5) Strive to test everyone who should be tested and separate the potential virus carriers from the healthy population, mainly through nucleic acid testing facilitated by CT scanning ................................ 23 6) Combine tracking and epidemiological investigation, meticulously track all close contacts through various ways .................................. 26 7) Isolate all infected patients and close contacts ................................ 28 8) Increase the supply of medical resources by diverse ways, treat all .......................................................................................................... 29 9) Provide comprehensive support to the control and containment measures through a mix of policies .................................................. 33 10) Protect the elderly and other groups with high risk of infection ... 35 11) Prepare for the potential rebound of COVID-19 ........................... 37 3. Impact and International Critique ......................................................... 38 1) Impact on public health .................................................................... 39 2) Impact on Chinese economy ............................................................ 44 3) Impact on Chinese society ............................................................... 47 4) Impact on the international community ........................................... 48 4. Insights for Other Developing Countries .............................................. 49 1) Under state emergency, the national government should be granted power to intervene in the country’s economic and social activities and the power to mobilize and allocate resources ............................ 49 2) When facing public emergencies with great uncertainties, national governments should adopt reasonably strict and swift strategies with ...... 50 3) The national strategy should be aligned with the national basic conditions ......................................................................................... 51 4) Scientists and professionals should be widely consulted throughout .......................................................................................................... 52 5) Adopt policy combinations and use whatever accessible. Combine traditional containment measures with modern technologies .......... 53 6) Emphasize supervision and accountability mechanisms to ensure local policy enforcement .................................................................. 53 Executive Summary As the outbreak of COVID-19 evolved into a global pandemic, how to effectively tackle the disease has become the most serious challenge for most countries. Under the strong leadership of the Chinese government and the active participation of all sectors of Chinese society, the spread of COVID-19 is mostly under control within China. Many international organizations, national leaders, and world-renowned scholars commended China’s tremendous efforts, and they believe that lessons from China’s experiences can be beneficial to other countries. In China’s overall strategy against COVID-19, the Chinese government insists on putting people’s right to life and health at its first priority. By mobilizing all sectors of Chinese society to take the responsibility of fighting against the pandemic, the government implemented the most comprehensive, rigorous and complete measures. China’s public health system not only focuses on treating patients, but also puts heavy emphasis on contain and control the spread of the virus. The following three characteristics were key to China’s relatively successful strategy. Firstly, constantly making adjustments based on the updated risk assessment and development trend of the pandemic. Secondly, based on the people- centered concept, the Chinese government not only puts people’s wellbeing at the top priority but also depends on the people by making them a major force and an essential part of the effort to tackle the pandemic, which could significantly increase the efficiency of the containment measures. Thirdly, following the basic principles of public health of “controlling the source, cutting transmission chain, and protecting the i susceptible population”. The Chinese government uses whatever available including comprehensive measures that combine traditional approaches with modern science and technology to prevent the spread of the virus and save life. As for the key measures, aiming at preventing the spread of the virus, lowering the fatality rate of infected patients as fast as possible, Chinese government has taken the traditional methods of social distancing and quarantine, along with providing treatment for all patients. The Chinese government also made great effort to mobilize the entire nation and coordinate resources at the national level, while encouraging medical professionals to play a significant role in the process and utilizing latest technologies whenever applicable. Additionally, enhancing information release and the supervision and accountability system also helped all the measures to be fully implemented. There are 10 major measures that the Chinese government took during the outbreak. Establish national-level command and decision-making institutions for emergency management and a cross-department coordination mechanism Promptly disseminate accurate information and relevant prevention knowledge via various channels. Close public places, pause most economic and social activities and require to wear masks in public, to reduce the risk of social clustered transmission. Take rigorous lock-down measures in multiple levels of cities and communities to break transmission chain. Strive to test everyone who should be tested and separate the potential ii virus carriers from the healthy population, mainly through nucleic acid testing facilitated by CT scanning. Combine tracking and epidemiological investigation, meticulously track all close contacts through various ways. Isolate all infected patients and close contacts. Increase the supply of medical resources by diverse ways, treat all patients while prioritizing the severe cases. Provide comprehensive support to the control and containment measures through a mix of policies. Protect the elderly and other groups with high risk of infection. Prepare for the potential rebound of COVID-19. Facing this sudden outbreak of COVD-19, the Chinese Government has adapted strategies and measures to the changing epidemic situation, and it also made sure to fully implement and enforce all the methods of containing respiratory infectious disease. China’s way to fight against COVID-19 successfully stopped the domestic spread of the virus within a short period of time and saved hundreds of thousands of people’s lives, as well as created the window of opportunity for the world. Though, this outbreak results in shocks to Chinese economy in short term. After a one- month break, the work and production resumption are now in progress in an orderly manner. This outbreak has also some social impacts. China’s rigorous and strict containment measures successfully protected the health and safety of the people and secured their awareness about the epidemic situation in their neighborhood. But some measures have a negative