Abstract
After the outbreak of COVID-19, the Chinese government gave top priority to the fight against the virus and put the people's lives and health before everything. President Xi Jinping has led the whole nation in a people's war of prevention and control against the virus. The "wartime-like" command mechanism and the strategies formulated in accordance with the ground reality offered strong leadership.
The Chinese government has upheld the principle of relying on the people and considered keeping them well informed as a key element to build consensus between the government and the public. Thanks to their social responsibility and trust in the government, the people took an active part in fighting the epidemic with a united will. The flexible and humanized social management and non-medical intervention featured by standard quarantine measures became key factors for containing the spread of the virus. The screening, test and supervision measures and epidemiological investigation proved to be crucial in cutting off the chain of virus transmission. By assorting hospitals based on utility, differentiating patients and the treatments they received based on their conditions, and integrating traditional Chinese medicine into therapy, China sharply decreased the infection rate and fatality rate, and at the same time raised the recovery rate. Meanwhile, China made full use of the advantage of its social system, allocated resources with high efficiency across the country and secured much-needed logistics support. With the whole natione's efforts to fight the battle of protecting Hubei and Wuhan, China has made initial achievements in prevention and control of the virus. Based on its own national situation, China has explored a set of practices and methods in the prevention and control of disease as well as the treatment of patients.
China's Fight Against COVID-19
COVID-19, which has spread rapidly and enveloped most of the world, is a global public health crisis the likes of which we have not seen in a century. After the outbreak, the Chinese government adopted the most comprehensive, stringent and thorough prevention and control measures in an attempt to bring the virus under control. With great courage and will, the spread of the virus has almost been tamed, marking an initial triumph for the country.
As most of the world struggles to cope, China — by analyzing its experiences and summarizing its achievements — has been searching for an optimal approach. The country has been trying to explore a set of practices and approaches that can be effective in curbing the spread of the virus and curing the infected.
China Watch Institute, a China Daily think tank, interviewed more than 60 Chinese and international public health experts and scholars in other fields to compile this report in collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary China Studies at Tsinghua University and the School of Health Policy and Management at Peking Union Medical College. This report presents a preliminary summary of what China has achieved in its fight against the virus.
