Since the first cases were detected in Wuhan in December 2019, the coronavirus outbreak has sickened more than 87,100 people, affecting more than 60 countries around the world . In China where the epidemic situation is the most serious, the authorities and citizens have been fighting the spread of illness for months. Now China appears to be getting the disease under control. According to China’s National Health Commission (NHC), the number of new infections and deaths has declined steadily since Feb. 12, the existing confirmed cases reached its peak 58,097 on Feb. 17, and has declined steadily to 32,741 on Mar. 1. The cure rate outside Hubei Province has risen to 82.3%.
“The world needs the experience and expertise of China, as the country is the most experienced in the world, which has turned around a serious outbreak,” said Bruce Aylward, Canadian epidemiologist, who heads the WHO mission team to China. As a Chinese citizen, I would like to share two lessons from China about how people deal with the epidemic, which might be useful to Italian friends.
Lesson 1: Prevent the viruses as well as the rumors.
The best way to prevent coronavirus is to reduce exposure and transmission. COVID-19 can spread easily and sustainably in the community, and there is no vaccine or specific treatment. So improving public awareness and adoption of self-protection measures are of importance. This time, the Chinese authorities have adopted “a people’s war” against the epidemic, where grass-roots mobilization was used to prevent the spread of the epidemic. Citizens were informed of some normal precautions against coronavirus through various channels such as television, newspapers and social media. In remote rural areas, social workers went from door to door to persuade villagers to stay indoors unless necessary, wash hands frequently and wear masks when going out. At the airports, railway stations, toll stations of the expressways, and even gates of residential apartment blocks, new arrivals are required to register and take the temperature. It has been estimated by The New York Times that more than half of China’s population is under some limitations on its movements. These measures might be overly restrictive on people, but they did work.
Besides preventing the viruses, it is also essential to prevent the rumors. During the early stage of the outbreak, various rumors about COVID-19 flooded the Internet. Fake news is no less dangerous than viruses. Since frightened people tend to be more credulous, they will believe and spread rumors without verifying. With the help of social media, panic can be easily accumulated and amplified. How did China fight the misinformation back? Be transparent, be prompt! The Chinese authorities have set up a National Reporting System (NRS) to issue daily reports of newly recorded confirmed cases, deaths, suspected cases nationwide. Besides providing the accurate data, websites such as Baidu, Dingxiang Doctor, Tencent News have opened Rumor Clarification Columns, in which information is updated in real-time. With the help of AI and big data, these sites can efficiently integrate information from government agencies, mainstream media, medical institutions, and the public. In this way, the time required to find, confirm and clarify rumors has been greatly saved. Take the Rumor Clarification Columns on the Baidu website as an example, its top eight hot searches on Mar. 1 received more than 4 million clicks in total .
Lesson 2: Stay at home but work at home.
Unlike SARS, COVID-19 is more contagious, with a longer incubation period. This means the epidemic may exist for months. If the economic activity is suspended for a long time due to the epidemic, it will result in various secondary hazards, such as unemployment, inflation, shortage of supplies, debt, etc. It is important for a country to bolster its economy while containing the epidemic at the same time. How did China do it? During the peak of the outbreak, although most citizens stay at home, they work at home. Schools have started as scheduled after the Chinese New Year holiday, students took classes online and used social media to communicate. Most employers have adopted flexible working methods, where employees did most of their work at home. Only in some important industries, such as PPE manufacturing, transportation, and logistics, employees returned to work with strict precautions.
As the epidemic has been gradually brought under control, China is now working to resume a more normal level of societal and economic activity outside the Hubei Province. Take Zhejiang Province, for example. Zhejiang has a total of 1,206 confirmed cases, of which 1,050 have been cured. According to Xinhua News Agency, by Feb. 28, 5726 largest export-oriented industrial enterprises in Zhejiang Province have all resumed production, and the capacity utilization has exceeded 68%. In Shanghai, 100% of the supermarkets, 95% of the shopping malls, 91% of the retail stores have been reopened by Mar. 1. The economy is “heating up” again.
I sincerely hope that China’s experience can help Italian friends. Wish we can contain this epidemic as soon as possible.
Author: Lang Kun, Ph.D. Candidate from Tsinghua University
原文详见：La vita durante l’epidemia: due lezioni dalla Cina（疫情下的生活：来自中国的两条经验），意大利百科全书研究院网站，2020-03-03