Very stringent measures and willingness on the part of the population to comply with every rule. Today in all of China, the country of the first outbreak and the first red zone of Wuhan, there are a total of 47 cases. How did they manage to keep the epidemic under control? Would it also be possible in Europe?
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It all started from there. Was December when news of a strange outbreak of viral pneumonia that was spreading in China and more precisely a Wuhan, in the province of Hubei, a city that you would have come to know very well in the following months. The territory was literally brought to its knees between the end of January and the beginning of March. But already on March 19th the positive trend had begun: no new cases registered. And unlike what happened in Western countries, the trend there has never worsened. Indeed, in August the city hosted a huge and super crowded pool party. A party that would not even be imaginable today with us. How did they do a keep Covid-19 at bay? In an article published on The Lancet Infectious Diseases we tried to understand just that.
The number of cases
In China, according to the latest data shown on the John Hopkins University map, the positive count is still at 91,271, most of which were found in the province of Hubei, and alone 4,739 dead make certain. It must be said that the debate on the numbers is open and there is the possibility that they are not entirely exact, as we have seen also happen in Italy during the first wave, due to the clogged laboratories and the tracking difficulties that we are still facing today. . But even taking these figures with a grain of salt, it is impossible not to notice the enormous difference compared to the United States, which currently declares over 8 million cases and 227,700 deaths or, trivially, with our country, where the data speak of 589,766 total infections and 37,905 deaths. These numbers are of course to be understood from the beginning of the health emergency.
Follow the rules
The first reason is perhaps to be found in the past. The China he had already experienced epidemics caused by coronaviruses, in particular the famous SARS of 2003, which had spread less rapidly, but had a much higher lethality rate, around 11%. The population therefore already knew that in the face of a situation of this type, the only form of defense is compliance with the security measures that are established. It is precisely the availability of people to accept the increasingly severe restrictions that were imposed favored the control of a situation that could be truly explosive in such densely populated urban areas.
Of course, we had the lockdown too, but the inhabitants of Wuhan agreed to stay at home, only going out once every two days to do the shopping. And in the toughest weeks, only one family member was allowed to leave the house. Fever was felt at the entrance and exit of each apartment building, the means of transport were completely stopped and any non-essential activity blocked completely. Not only that, but in Asian countries it was already widespread the culture of the mask when a person is sick. This background, coupled with the fact that the major factories of personal protective equipment are located in the country, meant that everyone wore one, immediately.
Government intervention
In addition to the behavior of citizens, of course they were also important the measures of the authorities. First of all, decisions regarding the ongoing emergency have been centralized. It is true, and it cannot be denied, that during the first few weeks the government not only ignored the problem but also arrested the doctor who first raised the alarm. However, when the genome of the new virus was sequenced on January 10 and the name SARS returned to circulation, important measures were immediately taken. Extended holidays for workers, first limits on travel and masks for everyone. As of January 23, Wuhan suffered a lockdown that lasted 76 days. In Italy, the closure ended after 58. And also in the rest of China important restrictions were put in place to limit the circulation of SARS-Cov-2. One among all, the 14 thousand health checkpoints installed throughout the territory near public transport stops.
The lockdown in Wuhan lasted 76 days and only one family member could go out every two days
In the city of Wuhan alone, which we all remember as a huge deserted metropolis, 9 million people were tested, ensuring an almost capillary tracking of the chain of infections. And this system is instead showing several flaws in Western countries. October 19 the Milan Ats had to admit defeat on this point.
Meanwhile they were being erected prefabricated hospitals. On 5 February the first three were opened and in the following weeks the number reached 13, with 13 thousand beds in total. Patients with even mild symptoms were hospitalized here, in order to facilitate isolation from healthy people. The aim was not to allow anyone to spend the quarantine in their own home, risking to infect family members as well. In truth, it did not succeed in all cases and even here, as in some Italian cities, some people died in their homes and others had to deal with clogged hospitals and the impossibility of being treated for chronic disease by which were affected. The March 10 However temporary hospitals were closed: they were no longer needed.
The inbound quarantine
In the meantime, we got organized for avoid the so-called wave of return, or infections imported from abroad that could give rise to new outbreaks. People entering China therefore had and still have to undergo swabs e spend a quarantine 14 days in hotels made available for this purpose. The measure is mandatory.
Seniors
A final reason is again to be traced back to the culture of the country. Older people usually live with their families or in nearby homes. Only 3% of them are hosted in RSA, that is, the places where important outbreaks developed during the first wave in Italy.
The limits to personal freedom
Certainly, the Chinese case can be an example. The spread of the virus can be kept under control: yesterday there were only 47 new cases across the country. The combination of stringent measures adopted by the government and the acceptance of them by the population has meant that today the shops in Wuhan are all open and in full operation.
On the sidelines of this reasoning, however, there remains a rather important reflection to make: how much personal freedom we are willing to give up in exchange for security? If it is true that in China there has been no protest by denier groups, no mask or no vax, it must also be said that no citizen could ever have declared himself against the measures issued by the government. The adherence to the rules that emerged on this occasion is also (not only) the result of the limits that the Chinese authorities already placed on the individual freedom of citizens and which will continue to exist when the pandemic is just a bad memory.
Fonte| “China’s successful control of COVID-19”, pubblicato su The Lancet Infectious Diseases on 8 October 2020
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