A few weeks ago, Chinese hospitals were flooded with Covid-19 patients, but now many empty beds have appeared, a field hospital is also closed.

China recorded 119 new cases of nCoV yesterday, marking three consecutive days of new cases dropping. The number of suspected infections also fell to the lowest level since the end of January, at 520, while the figure at the beginning of February was 29,000. Many localities have lowered the alert level with nCoV, such as Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangdong, Son Tay autonomous regions.

After Covid-19 broke out from Wuhan City, more than 42,000 health workers across China were mobilized to Hubei Province. The health situation of the people is closely monitored. The field hospitals have been built "speedy" to reduce the burden on health facilities. More than 780 million people, or more than half of China's population, are restricted in various ways to prevent the spread of nCoV.

A delegation, consisting of 13 foreign experts and 12 Chinese scientists arranged by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Beijing, surveyed five Chinese cities to analyze the Covid-19 situation, as well as the effectiveness of a series of drastic measures in the country. The results of the study surprised some experts.

"I used to think those figures couldn't be true," said epidemiologist Tim Eckmanns of Germany's Robert Koch Research Institute, a member of the delegation, referring to the decline in new cases in China. However, the February 28 report of the delegation highlighted positive signals from the world's largest Covid-19 drive.

"China's bold approach to preventing the virus from spreading has helped change the course of a deadly and contagious disease outbreak. The drop in nCoV cases across China is real," the report said. at one point, adding that the epidemic in this country seems to have peaked since the end of January.

Most reports focus on how China curbs an extremely contagious virus, a task that many health experts find impossible. "China's measures are probably the most drastic and swift anti-epidemic effort in history," the report noted.

The harshest and most controversial measure is the blockade of dozens of localities. Some people doubt the necessity of this measure, especially in areas far from Hubei and there are few cases of illness, as well as concerns about people's freedom. However, the WHO mission report assesses them as "effective in preventing cases of infection from moving to other parts of the country". In some parts of China, people even voluntarily quarantine under supervision.

"The Chinese people have shown solidarity and made sacrifices to prevent the virus from spreading, for their own and global sake. China deserves the applause of the world," said Koh King Kee, Asian research expert in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, commented.

Many other tough social quarantine measures have also been implemented across the country, including canceling sporting events, closing crowded gatherings, and extending students' Lunar New Year holidays. . Many businesses decided to close. Anyone going out must wear a mask.

AliPay and WeChat, two widely used phone applications in China, also support disease control, because they allow the government to monitor the movement of people. Gabriel Leung, an expert at the University of Hong Kong, explained that each person has a color code on the app, consisting of three colors green, yellow and red, corresponding to their health status. Security staff at the train stations and checkpoints rely on it to decide who allows passing.

"The consequence of this series of measures is that people's lives are extremely binding, but they are effective," according to the WHO delegation report. Cases are now rarely transmitted to anyone other than their family members. When an entire household is infected, the virus cannot keep moving and the chain of transmission ends. "That's how the disease is actually controlled," Leung explained.

Bruce Aylward, a Canadian epidemiologist leading the WHO delegation, judged the biggest lesson from China was the processing speed. "The faster you detect, quarantine and capture the patient's social exposure history, the more successful the prevention will be. China has proven that despite the serious infection situation, if average roll up your systematic search and track sleeves, you can definitely change the landscape, "he said.

The question now is whether the world can learn from China, or if other countries apply large-scale blockade and electronic surveillance like China, will they achieve the same effect or not. "I think countries have very compelling reasons to hesitate to take such a series of extreme measures," said Lawrence Gostin, a scholar of global health law at Georgetown University, USA.

According to Aylward, to be able to speed up the response, the government needs to provide information to the people, while ensuring the health system operates quickly, as well as focusing on investigating the contact history. with the community of cases and well perform surveillance. "90% of China's response is like that," he said.

The Canadian expert added that China's policy of free testing and treatment for Covid-19 patients is also noticeable. "In the West, if you are negative for a virus, you will have to pay for a test. The Chinese government recognizes that it is a barrier to fighting the epidemic, so it pays even those without insurance," he said. prefer.

China's drastic efforts came after a series of criticisms of initial hesitation. Covid-19 appeared from December 2019. By the time official took action on January 20, the disease had become a serious threat. Experts say that due to the lack of a strong initial move, the Chinese government has missed the "golden opportunity" to contain the epidemic.

Robert Dingwall, a professor at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, said that the Chinese government also needs to learn from the shortcomings of the translation process, stemming from the way the state apparatus operates. According to the laws of this country, local authorities must report the disease of unknown cause to the Ministry of Health, and then wait for the State Council to convene and approve it to be announced.

"After the crisis has passed, China needs to consider giving more action to local governments, rather than waiting for authorization from an appropriate authority in the central government," Dingwall said. .

President Xi Jinping also said the epidemic was "a great test of China's system and governance capacity", in the context of high-ranking officials blaming each other publicly, or blaming the "government system". bureaucracy "does not take timely action to control the epidemic.

"The most important issue exposed in this epidemic is the passivity of the local government," said Hua Khai Trinh, a writer specializing in Chinese political topics.

The WHO mission's report also mentioned some areas that China should improve, such as "need to publish important data and clearer developments of the disease on an international scale". In addition, many experts fear that China's efforts are at risk of helping to curb the disease temporarily.

"They have clearly managed to contain the disease. However, this is like putting out a wildfire, possibly not putting it out completely. It could flare up again. Now, we have a chance to see China." How will it cope if Covid-19 revives, "Mike Osterholm, an expert at the University of Minnesota, USA, said.