Manpower cannot be ignored in fight against the novel coronavirus

With the government encouraging people to stay at home so as to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, white-collar workers are working from home and students are studying online, and e-commerce is helping to ensure people can still buy the daily necessities they need.

As such, the digital economy is helping people carry on with their lives and is conducive to reducing the negative impact of the epidemic on the real economy.

But the question is whether the internet has played its due part in the epidemic prevention and control work.

The epidemic is a big test of China's public health system, a big test of the country's economic and social development capabilities, and a big test of the governance system, which has proudly claimed to have driven its modernization by embracing big data, the internet-of-things and cloud computing.

Although smartphones and the internet are playing important roles in helping to trace people suspected of being infected with the virus and those they have come into close contact with, which would be particularly an arduous work without them, it is the hard work of the grassroots civil servants, residential community property management staff and couriers that has ensured that the quarantine measures are strictly carried out and people get the food they need.

It should be borne in mind that, as the serious situation in Wuhan, Hubei province, indicates, if smart city systems and e-government fail to spot and alert people of a public health threat in a timely manner, the dramatic surge in demand for medical services can instantly overwhelm even a provincial capital's healthcare capabilities. Wuhan is home to some first-class hospitals and health institutes, yet it has required assistance from all over the country.

In other words, while tapping into advanced information technology' s potential to boost good governance, the authorities should by no means ignore the important role of humans in the system, as it finally rests with humans to stretch the legs of technology, not the other way round.

The digital economy has supported people's daily lives, and digital technology is playing an important role in epidemic prevention and control, but the novel coronavirus outbreak has also exposed some shortcomings and deficiencies in the governance system and shown that it cannot rely solely on the advancement of technology. This is a lesson that must be heeded.