WEATHERING COVID-19: Lessons from Wuhan and Milan for Urban Governance and Sustainability
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Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Faculty Scholarship 7-2020 WEATHERING COVID-19: Lessons from Wuhan and Milan for Urban Governance and Sustainability Xiangming Chen Trinity College, [email protected] Yi Teresa Wu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/facpub Part of the Asian Studies Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Global Crisis ver the first few months of WEATHERING COVID-19: 2020, the novel coronavirus, O which erupted in the Chinese city of Wuhan around 1 January, Lessons from Wuhan and engulfed around 200 countries and regions, infected over 12 million people and killed over 550,000 as of 8 July. Milan for Urban Governance This rapid spread from one locality to the entire world has quickly mobilised and Sustainability our responses to fighting COVID-19. Little collective response, however, has BY XIANGMING CHEN AND YI TERESA WU taken place, leaving most nations to muster their own resources to stem the virus within their closed borders. This has facilitated comparing nation-based data on new cases, death counts and relative performances in containing the The global spread of COVID-19 great cities of the East and West – virus. However, it has overshadowed a has exposed the world’s largest and Wuhan and Milan – have responded local focus on responses to COVID-19, densest urban centres to bearing to the deadly virus, with their especially by the most affected cities. the brunt of this pandemic. The internal and external strengths and invisible virus has forced thriving constraints. We also take the reader The invisible virus has forced metropolises to empty their streets deep into the two cities’ neighbour- and shops to dead spaces absent of hoods for a realistic sense of how thriving metropolises to people and activity. It even triggers their local residents have dealt with empty their streets and shops the doomsday question of, “Does COVID-19. We end by drawing crit- COVID-19 mean the end of cities?” ical lessons for urban governance to dead spaces absent of In this article, we compare how two and sustainability. people and activity. Featured photo above: The empty plaza in front of Duomo di Milano, Italy europeanfinancialreview.com 17 Global Crisis While global in scope, COVID-19 has hit cities very differently. As the first epicentre of the pandemic, Wuhan lost 3,869 residents, about 80% of China’s total COVID-19 deaths. New York City, the epicentre of the pandemic in the United States, has accounted for almost one-quarter of all deaths in the country. Since the coronavirus spreads faster in closer social and spatial interac- tions, is density to blame for the high death counts in Wuhan and New York, whose urban cores have around 7,000 and 11,000 people per km2, respectively? Not so fast. Despite a density of over 20,000 people per km2 in central Shanghai, the city of 25 million people had only 339 COVID cases and seven deaths. Other factors must be considered and can reveal a lot about cities’ capacities to respond to an unprecedented public health crisis and to enhance post-crisis governance and sustainability. To probe into these factors, we conduct a countries ranked by total coronavirus cases. comparative analysis of two COVID-19 epicen- A deserted highway near After Wuhan’s lockdown on 23 January, China tres – Wuhan and Milan. The first section looks the Huanghelou tourist peaked at 4,670 cases on 12 February, and site at night. at the trends in COVID-19 infections and deaths around 80,000 cases on 1 March.1 These dates Source: Photo from in the two cities in global and regional contexts. Xinhua; accessed from marked a sharp decline in new cases and slight The second section examines municipal and www.chinadailyhk.com/ increases in cases mostly due to imported cases. community responses to COVID-19 in terms article/124842 Italy had few cases when China’s new cases of containment strategy, medical infrastructure peaked on 12 February. Despite a region- and external support versus constraint. The al-to-national quarantine on 8 March, Italy’s last section draws important lessons for urban 4,825 deaths surpassed China’s total number of governance and sustainability. deaths (4,632 on 17 April)2 on 21 March. Italy’s cases reached 86,500 on 27 March and surpassed 1. Seeing Through the Data China’s highest number of around 83,000 on 1 COVID-19 has generated a deluge of data on May. In comparison, the United States topped infection and death in real time. We contextu- China and Italy 100,000 cases on 27 March and surpassed Italy alise city-level data on Wuhan and Milan through have been among in the number of deaths at 5,151 on 31 March. a statistical look at China and Italy in the global the world’s most The US, Italy and several developed European picture of COVID-19 and the domestic regional COVID-affected countries remained among the world’s top 10 contexts of the two cities. most-affected nations through April. Turkey countries. But they and Russia joined the list at the end of April, A Global Glance have very different as did Brazil in early May. At this point, China China and Italy have been among the world’s trajectories in the was no longer in the initial top 10 countries. As most COVID-affected countries. But they have of early July, increased infections in more devel- very different trajectories in the virus’s spread, virus’s spread, oping countries like Pakistan, Peru and South containment and destruction compared with containment Africa had pushed Italy out of the top 10 and other most-affected countries. China led the and destruction China out of the top 20. world in active cases and deaths from early compared with January until late March. During that period, A Regional Perspective China and Iran were the only two developing other most- To further frame the Wuhan-Milan comparison, and non-Western countries among the top 10 affected countries. we highlight the regional settings in which the two 18 The European Financial Review June - July 2020 regional epicentre. Some 40,000 people travelled from Lombardy, Italy’s wealthiest Bergamo and Spain to a Champions’ League foot- region in the north, was ball game in Milan on 19 February 2020, of whom many partied overnight, accelerating the spread of the regional epicentre of COVID-19 in the region.4 The Milan Fashion Week the pandemic for Italy of 18-24 February also drew its usual large attend- ance. These large social gatherings, coupled with earlier during the outbreak. geographical proximity of Milan and smaller nearby cities, contributed to the virus’s spread in Lombardy. cities have been affected disproportionately. Hubei A Local Comparative Focus province, with Wuhan as its capital, is the regional Hubei and Lombardy help us focus on Wuhan and epicentre of COVID-19 in China. When the infected Milan as urban epicentres where COVID-19 has cases in Hubei peaked at nearly 5,000 on 25 February inflicted the worst destruction and has been tackled (see Figure 1A), they accounted for 83.3% of all of most forcefully with local and non-local policy China’s cases. This percentage remained more or less tools and medical resources. Figure 2 compares the same until 6 May, after China brought the virus COVID-19 trends for both cities, even though the under control. While Wuhan consistently accounted for the majority of cases in the province, at 73.9% on 6 May, it was not an isolated epicentre. As of Figure 1A: COVID-19 Trends in Hubei Province 6 May, four out of 17 cities in Hubei had accumu- 8,00 lated 9,399 cases, which accounted for 13.8% of all cases in Hubei.3 The four cities border Wuhan 0,000 on all sides. Not only did Wuhan have Hubei prov- 2,00 ince as the outer layer of its COVID cases, it also ,000 spread the virus around its surrounding areas. Lombardy, Italy’s wealthiest region in the north, 1,00 was the regional epicentre of the pandemic for Italy 0 earlier during the outbreak. We see this through 1/21 1/28 2/4 2/11 2/18 2/2 / /10 2/1 /24 /1 4/ 4/14 4/21 4/28 / a combined analysis of the national data from Active Cases Total Cases Total Recovered Total Deaths Worldometer and the subnational data reported Source: raphed from data reported by Hubei Provincial Sanitary and by the Italian Ministry of Health (see Figure 1B). Health Commission. Given the absence of official data for February, we have picked three points in time to trace the trajec- tory of COVID-19 in Lombardy from early March. Figure 1B: COVID-19 Trends in the Lombardy Region When Italy had only 2,502 cases on 3 March, 1,520 (60.8%) were concentrated in the Lombardy region. 100,000 This share dropped to 39.7% on 3 April, and to 80,000 36.8% on 3 May. Lombardy was hardest hit earlier on, before the virus spread to other parts of Italy. 0,000 Lombardy differs drastically from China, where Hubei and Wuhan remained the regional and local 40,000 epicentres throughout the pandemic. Lombardy’s epicentre over time, Milan’s share of Lombardy’s 20,000 cases rose from 7.4% on 3 March to 21.9% on 3 14 April, and to 25.9% on 3 May. Similar to the virus 0 connection between Wuhan and its surrounding 2/21/20 /1/20 /10/20 /19/20 /28/20 4//20 4/1/20 4/24/20 //20 cities, the city of Bergamo, 50 km from Milan city on Daily Increase ActiveCases Total Recovered Total Deaths Total Cases the edge of Greater Milan, was an integral part of the Source: raphed from data reported by Italy’s Ministry of Health.