Chinese cities on highest virus alert
Global Times
By GT staff reporters Source:Global Times Published: 2020/2/6 23:28:43
After two weeks of city lockdown in Wuhan, the epicenter of the deadly coronavirus in Central China's Hubei Province, some positive signs emerged nationwide as growth rate of confirmed cases slightly dropped and the situation outside the province has been stabilizing. However, some megacities and neighboring provinces still face a tough battle as they face a post-holiday travel rush with people returning to work.
Authorities have advised a 14-day quarantine in many places in China after the outbreaks as part of the efforts to isolate as many suspected cases of infection as possible and track down those who have contact with infected people. As the disease could be contagious with or without symptoms, which has caused so far 28,018 cases of infection and death of 563, provinces and municipalities have ramped up efforts to track down secondary and tertiary cases in the coming weeks.
North China's Tianjin Municipality announced on Thursday to adopt close-off community management citywide to further restrict people's movement.
For better understanding the importance of isolation, some media reports divided Chinese population into A, B, C and D four categories: A group has direct travel history to Wuhan, and the B group has a close contact with A in public places without knowing it, thus is the most dangerous group. C is those who have close contact with A and knowing it, and D have been staying at home. If people of the D group go out, they may encounter people from B, creating a new category 2B who also have a high probability to be infected.
After 14 days of self-imposed quarantine, suspected patients with fever and symptoms of respiratory illness would be identified, including those from the A, B and C groups. However, it takes longer time to identify people from 2B group for their indirect contact with the virus carrier.
Based on such analysis, local authorities in provinces and municipalities have come up with strict registration measures for those who have a travel history to Wuhan and Hubei, requiring those who have been to those places to remain in quarantine for 14 days.
The past two weeks of efforts to isolate infected people and suspected patients have yielded some results as the overall growth rate of confirmed cases in China has been slowing down with an improving recovery rate, reflecting progress made, except in Hubei Province.
However, people living in metropolis such as Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province and Nanjing, capital city of East China's Jiangsu Province reached by the Global Times expressed concerns of a second outbreak of the novel coronavirus as the Spring Festival draws to an end.
Growing worries
Zhang Xin, a teacher from Hubei who works in Shenzhen, called on the Shenzhen government to launch stricter and more detailed measures.
Zhang returned to her hometown in Qichun, a county in Huanggang, Hubei, for a few days and then went to Linyi, East China's Shandong Province during the Spring Festival holidays.
"When I returned to Shenzhen, I reported to the community committee that I had been to Hubei, they asked me to write down my name and phone number, but nobody came to check me since then," Zhang told the Global Times on Thursday.
Zhang arrived in Shenzhen on January 28 and was required to stay at home for 14 days by the school she works for.
She said she understood that the Shenzhen government had launched many measures to curb the coronavirus, but the large migrant population makes it difficult to implement.
There are more than 13 million people living in Shenzhen.
Spring Festival holiday will come to a close on February 9. The Shenzhen government requires local companies to file a report to the government before resuming operation and stipulated that the number of people who go to the office could not exceed half of the total headcount, according to Guo, another Hubei native working for a medical equipment company in Shenzhen.
However, Guo told the Global Times that she had started working since Monday and was not aware if the company had reported to the government.
Wuhan mayor Zhou Xianwang told a press conference on January 26 that more than 5 million people had left Wuhan amid the outbreak, raising concerns over where they went.
Big data analysis showed that from December 30 to January 22, most flights departing from Wuhan headed to cities including Beijing, Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong, and Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan.
Also, some domestic media outlets have investigated hundreds of examples of confirmed cases, analyzing the route of transmission. It's worth noting that people-to-people transmission occurred most frequently among family members and relatives in public transport, reunions and diner banquets, the reports said.
Zhao Jing, a woman working in Nanjing shared the same concern as the return travel peak approaches, saying she wished the holiday would be prolonged to the end of February or March.
The Nanjing government announced on Wednesday it would carry out close-off management in all communities and suspend all construction projects in the city, beefing up measures against the novel coronavirus.
While Hubei still accounts for about 70 percent of total confirmed cases of infection nationwide, Zhejiang of East China and Guangdong account for 4 percent and 3.36 percent, respectively, based on current official data. Central China's Henan and Hunan, which are also neighboring Hubei, also recorded growing cases.
More efforts
Analysts forecast that metropolis including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing where many Wuhan and other Hubei people work and live may face growing risks of the further spread of novel coronavirus.
"Thus, it's very important for these cities to consider more detailed policies on the exact time of their return to work and school, and adopt a plan for companies and organizations to resume business at different time," Wang Hongwei, a professor at Renmin University of China's School of Public Administration and Policy in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday.
It's also likely that such cities and places seriously hit by the epidemic such as Zhejiang Province may further extend holidays until the epidemic is under control and the number of new confirmed cases drop significantly, Wang added.
More cities have strengthened their information disclosure mechanism among those who have been to Wuhan and Hubei in the past few weeks. And those who intentionally hide their travel history during outbreak could lead to serious legal punishment, according to media reports.
For instance, a 64-year-old woman in Shenzhen who hid her travel from Wuhan on January 21 was diagnosed with coronavirus on January 26, but she went to some public places during this period without notifying local authorities. On Tuesday, the local police filed a criminal investigation against the woman for repeatedly concealing her travel itinerary and fever.
Faced with a possible second wave of outbreak, smaller cities and counties in China have also been mobilized to resolutely fight this battle by finding out people having contact with people coming from Wuhan and Hubei.
Poyang, the most populous county in Shangrao, East China's Jiangxi Province, only had one confirmed case by Saturday but experienced a dramatic rise during the past few days, which triggered increasing anxiety among local residents, some of them told the Global Times.
As of the end of Wednesday, Poyang reported 34 confirmed cases of the coronavirus infection, around half of the cases in Shangrao, according to the data provided by a local official to the Global Times on Thursday.
Another grass-roots local official in Poyang, who requested anonymity, told the Global Times that the local government has concentrated on the fight against the disease, including sealing off the county on Monday, closely monitoring residents who returned from Hubei Province.
Beijing has also banned catering companies from hosting any dinners for up to three people, signaling tougher regulations that aim to prevent the possible spread of the coronavirus in the capital city in the coming days.
"Strengthening screening measures in and out of railway stations, subway stations, airports and residential communities is also important for these cities," Wang said.
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