Reasons for Recent Positive Signs of China’s Anti-Coronavirus Campaign

By: Lei Xiangping

After nearly a one-month period of controlling the further spread of the deadly novel coronavirus by taking a serial of the strictest policies, China has achieved noticeable good results to gradually keep this virus under control. These positive signs not only have been substantiated by the latest daily information released by the Chinese government but also been proven by WHO’s foreign experts’ recent on-the-spot visit to Wuhan, the epicenter of this virus crisis.

So far, the number of newly confirmed patients infected with the virus and the number of newly cured and discharged-from-the-hospitals patients, has respectively experienced a record low and a record high. The difference between them has been over 1000 for many days in a row, and when more and more people are being cured and less and less people being newly confirmed infectious of the virus, completely getting rid of this virus is a matter of time.

According to the official reports by China Central Television (CCTV), barely on Feb. 23th, 24 out of 31 provinces except for Hubei province in China had “zero reports” of newly confirmed patients and 8 other provinces including Hubei had 409 newly confirmed patients, with Hubei occupying 398 cases. The figures show that 31 provinces but Hubei only had 11 newly confirmed patients, which means the virus spread beyond Hubei province has been effectively contained.

The number of cured patients, another important indicator to assess the improvement of the virus crisis severity, has good news as well. According to CCTV,  31 provinces other than Hubei experienced 1846 patients cured on the single day of Feb. 23th and 24734 patients cured and discharged from hospitals in total from the inception of this crisis in late January to Feb. 23rd. In Hubei province alone, the number of newly cured patients on Feb. 23th and during the above-mentioned time range was 1439 and 16738 respectively. These figures constitute telling evidence that even in Hubei province, whose capital city Wuhan is the epicenter of this virus crisis,  the situation has been improved obviously.

In addition, a WHO workgroup also gave a positive assessment of China’s improvement in dealing with the virus. Recently, a joint inspection group co-chaired by Chinese experts and WHO’s foreign experts, in order to assess the real effectiveness of China's anti-virus campaign, paid a visit to Hubei province and Wuhan city, and they have never been unwilling to express their praises.

On Feb. 24th, the group chair on the WHO side Bruce Aylward, a senior consultant to the WHO Chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom, had a joint news briefing in Beijing after the visit. Aylward said that within two weeks the number of newly confirmed patients in China has shrunk by 80 percent and after confirming and inspecting data from different sources, this figure is well-substantiated. Expressing no doubt on the authenticity of this figure, he also added that China’s methods of tackling the unknown virus are unprecedented, flexible and precautionary.

Jugging both from the latest date and the WHO’s assessment, it is no exaggeration to conclude that China has achieved a lot in its anti-virus campaign. But why and how China has made it? It is important to shed some lights on the reasons behind it, because for one thing, China’s experiences will surely contribute to helping other countries which are also facing coronavirus challenges, for another, China needs to counterattack by informing the truth against some defamation and demonization tactics by several western media, which have stigmatized China’s anti-virus campaign as a violation of human rights or even compared China to the real sick man of Asia.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Feb. 23th made an important speech regarding how to promote the nationwide anti-virus campaign effectively, which summarizes what China has done in the past month and what should be done in the near future. From his speech, two important reasons can be seen behind China’s achievement in this campaign: a clear strategy by the Chinese central government to fight the virus and the meticulous implementations of this strategy on the local level.

On the strategic level, President Xi has said that in terms of fighting the virus, controlling the virus source and severing its transmission is a key point,  increasing the rate of patients being hosted and treated and the rate of patients being cured and cutting the rate of contagion and mortality should be prioritized, and early identifying, reporting, quarantining and treating patients is critically important. Also, Chinese central government has planed the strategy by considering the situation in the whole country and the special characteristics of different provinces, the central government gives general guidance and offers know-how help and medical resources and different provinces can employ policies flexibly to better manage the local problems.

For example, in the past month, with the help of the central government, more than 40,000 well-trained medical personnel has been dispatched to Hubei province, and over 70,000 patient beds have been ready after the completion of the construction of two special hospitals and several makeshift hospitals. Right now, the shortage of hospital beds in Wuhan has been completely alleviated, patients infections of the virus no longer have to wait a long queue before being treated and there are more beds than patients.

On the local implementation level, a people’s war against this virus is still underway. In places like Guangdong province, Shanghai and Beijing, which have lots of migrant population coming and going, these local governments have take up strict policies, like delaying new term opening hour in universities, resuming workers’ shift in a flexible way and avoiding any unnecessary gatherings in the residential community, to sever any possibility of virus transmission. Also, local governments have to make sure the supplies of basic necessities and medical protection goods must satisfy local people’s demands with reasonable prices.

China’s temporary success is a result of good decision making and unremitting implementation of the decision, but making way to final victory needs more determination, persistence, and wisdom.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Tasnim.)

Lei Xiangping is a Tehran-based Reporter of China Media Group, which is a combination of CCTV, CRI, CNR and CGTN.