Shanghai's quick response minimizes spread of virus

SHANGHAI－Shanghai brought the latest COVID-19 resurgence under control within three days due to a series of swift prevention and control measures.

No new locally transmitted cases were reported on Sunday in Shanghai, the city's health commission said Monday.

"The epidemic situation in Shanghai is coming to an end," Zhang Wenhong, head of the Center for Infectious Diseases at the Shanghai-based Huashan Hospital of Fudan University, said in a posting on the Sina Weibo social media platform on Sunday.

Immediately after the three latest cases were reported in Shanghai on Thursday, authorities activated an emergency response, carried out epidemiological investigations, performed nucleic acid tests on related personnel and disinfected related venues.

The rules say epidemiological investigators must arrive at the scene within two hours, complete the core investigations within four hours, and finish the epidemiological reports within 24 hours, said Pan Hao, an official in charge of COVID-19 prevention and control from the Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Only through quick action can we minimize the spread of the virus," Pan said.

As of Sunday morning, a total of 214 people identified as close contacts in Shanghai had been tested and quarantined. One was found to be an asymptomatic carrier on Saturday.

Multiple departments, including the city's big data center and the public security and traffic authorities, have been mobilized to preserve residents' normal lives while prioritizing epidemic control.

Birendra Kumar Sah, a Nepali surgeon at the Ruijin Hospital of the School of Medicine at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, witnessed Shanghai's efficiency through the city's timely and proper management of the outbreak.

Multiple hospitals, including Ruijin, suspended the admission of new patients for epidemic control after the new cases were reported, with doctors, nurses and patients forbidden to leave.

Sah said the hospital provided daily necessities for hospital staff and patients, with work mostly unaffected.

He was also moved because the hospital made arrangements for his 6-year-old son's kindergarten teacher to take care of the boy while he and his wife were both quarantined in the hospital. "While we are serving the patients and society, society is also serving us," he said.

By Monday morning, all the hospitals had ended closed-loop management and resumed normal operations.

Xinhua