DODO KHAN QAMBRANI
PANDEMIC COVID-19 was initially named Novel Corona virus. At the time of its outbreak in China, the Chinese government requested WHO to declare International Medical Emergency, which was accepted but a bit late. Interestingly, all the stories spin around two sources of the virus which are wild animals and laboratory. Whatever the source of its origin is, does not have as much importance for the public at this juncture of worldwide overwhelming panic, disruption, scarcity of essential daily consumables and medical resources, losses to macro and micro economies and losses of lives but the important is how to come out of this devastating situation. China, being the first affected and also the first to overcome the COVID-19, has provided roadmap to the world to effectively combat the virus. Hence, allow me to share my experience in China during the pandemic. It was the time when travel of Chinese people was at its peak at national and international levels due to their biggest annual event “Spring Festival” when Coronavirus was diagnosed among Wuhan inhabitants. Till the time, it was defined that a considerable number of patients visiting doctors with the symptoms of fever, flu, body ache and breathing issues are basically Coronavirus patients until then hundreds of thousands of people had already travelled within the Wuhan city and from Wuhan to other cities of China as well as to different countries. No one knew what was going on behind the scene; hence, a massive social networking and interaction on the eve of Spring Festival was indirectly catering to be Corona’s festival.
Suddenly, figure of infected people jumped to thousands in Wuhan, there was panic in public, thousands of people immediately left Wuhan carrying Coronavirus to other cities. This was the time when Chinese government and public switched over to work together like a magician. In order to combat Coronavirus, Chinese government announced to construct a new hospital of one thousand beds that was completed in a record time of ten days and several other makeshift hospitals were made over there. Simultaneously, Wuhan city being epicentre of COVID-19 was locked down. During this episode, I had conversation with a Pakistani student living in a locked down zone. According to him, all students were being provided with grocery/food items and they were given emergency numbers to contact. Upon contact, medicine, masks or any other essentials were being provided to students. He was pretty satisfied with the care and services extended by the local management. Medical teams and volunteers knocked each door of Wuhan city to check if there was an infected person. Doctors, paramedics, nursing and technical staff went massively overburdened. They worked continuously for long hours wearing adult diapers because of being packed with Personal Protection Kits. They were not allowed to stay at their homes; therefore, their stay was arranged in specified hotels. Despite such a challenging situation, their moral was high and they dispensed their duties with dedication and sense of responsibility.
Outside Wuhan city, foreigners realizing panic in China and finding window in their home country rushed towards their countries. Similarly, around two hundred Pakistani travelled to Urumqi airport from different areas of China and they were stuck at the airport as flights for Pakistan were cancelled. Afterwards, they were provided with suitable facilities and were quarantined over there envisaging filtered out entrants in Pakistan and to elude further panic in China. Most interesting part of the strategy of Chinese Government and their implementation was that at the same time, same procedure was being adopted in all buildings of the country whether it was super store, residential building or office building. As a first step, building management deployed security guards at entrance to check temperature of every entrant then issued special cards to residents and every time for exit and entry that card was required to be shown so as to avoid entry of irrelevant person in the building. Face recognition cameras were closed at the entrance of residential buildings to reduce risk by not removing masks. Wooden trays having wet carpets inside were installed at entrances for washing of outsoles. Similarly, wet carpets were placed at entrance of car parking to wipe vehicle tyres and at the same time tyres were being sprayed as well. Streets, elevators and buildings were being sprayed. People stayed indoors, roads went empty and except grocery stores rest of the business was suspended.
To sum up, certain steps taken by China are worth mentioning in dealing with the epidemic. Chinese authorities not only combated COVID-19 by lockdown of affected areas, proper training to all relevant professionals combating the virus, carrying out of maximum tests, arrangements of desired medical facilities, provision of proper kits for all professionals, uniting the nation, fumigating the space from one corner to other and generating awareness among people for contributing by social distancing, usage of masks, washing hands frequently. But also they walked parallel to engage diplomatic fronts and media to reduce panic. They timely decided for maximum utilization of technology to fill the vacuum created at different fronts of affairs and they ensured their success by achieving record level of e-commerce during the epidemic. Educational institutions engaged their students through online lectures, homework and assignments. Employees started work from home. Online sessions led by psychologists were organized to normalize people in the state of stress due to the epidemic. China endeavoured to explore approaches. They tested, tried these approaches, moved forward and succeeded. Now it is turn of rest of the world to adhere to successfully tested and tried approaches of China and simultaneously to envisage further effective approaches for defeating the deadly virus as it never allows states to wait and watch. It spreads silent and fast, and there is no vaccine yet to kill it. Entire world is locked down, nightmare is there, world economy is crumbling, poor and daily wagers were already vulnerable for feeding their families, now, bread is escaping away from lower middle class. To control COVID-19, all needed is proactive approach of both state as well as public.
—The writer is Researcher in the fields of social and economic affairs, based in Chengdu, China.
