March 19, 2020

Andrew Campbell 

On March 18 China government announced all 34 new cases on the Coronavirus epidemic were people from elsewhere. The news of zero new local infection cases for the first time in China since its Coronavirus crisis broke out in January may signal a milestone in China’s battle against the deadly disease.

At first, some medical experts had detected cases of mysterious pneumonia in the city of Wuhan in December of 2019. The virus then spread across Hubei province in central China. By late January, China’s government had to impose a tight lockdown of draconian travel and quarantine restrictions over 50 million people.

Apparently, early detection and isolation was the most important quarantine measure in reducing COVID-19 cases as observed in Singapore and Taiwan. The lockdown actions imposed from China’s government seem to reach an end to the first wave of the Coronavirus infections. It represents a remarkable turnaround for China, even though the virus had killed more than 3 thousand people in China.

China’s successful Coronavirus response may well serve as a model for other countries in the world, such as France, Italy, Philippine, South Korea, Spain, etc. to adopt stringent lockdowns on their citizens and strategies such as neighborhood committees enforced quarantines.

Now, China needs to pick up the pieces back to revive the economy. As China posted record declines in industrial production, retail sales, and fixed-asset investment in January and February, businesses and factories have been instructed to gradually reopen across the country by the authorities.

Photo:Webshot.