China Expert Tells How They Tamed Covid 19

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China used a strategy called ‘elimination or containment’ to bring under control the pandemic which first broke out in the city of Wuhan. (AP pic)PETALING JAYA: While Malaysia is still struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic, China, where the breakout first happened, has it under control – and a doctor from the country’s Centre for Disease Control has outlined how they did it.
The Chinese CDC’s chief epidemiologist Dr Wu Zunyou has listed out multiple factors and solutions the Chinese government took in order to successfully contain the spread of the virus.
The strategy China chose was called ‘elimination or containment’ and it follows the principles of controlling acute infectious diseases. It was appropriate for them, said Dr Wu at a webinar hosted by the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on the topic of Covid-19.
“Other factors which contributed included strong leadership from the government, good coordination of government sectors and society, mobilisation of communities and full implementation of control strategies,” he said.
Wu also listed additional measures which helped in controlling outbreaks rapidly which included early detection and reporting, close contact tracing, large-scale screenings and free treatment for Covid-19 patients.
He also said that China used a risk assessment tool to divide districts into high-, medium- and low-risk areas in order to keep the number of people affected to a minimum.
“If China had not used these containment strategies and if we assumed global cumulative incidence and mortality for China, experts predict that China would have 40 million cases and 840,000 deaths.”
China had reported great success in containing the spread of the virus early this year with a total of 94,954 confirmed cases and 4,634 deaths as of Sept 2.
Malaysia has reported a total of 1,995,771 infections to date, with nearly 21,000 deaths.
China had previously boasted of its success in snuffing out the pandemic within its borders after imposing the world’s first virus lockdown in early 2020 as Covid-19 was first found at its epicentre in Wuhan. - FMT

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