China's battle against the pandemic is far from over

The Chinese government has taken a slew of stringent steps to counter the new wave of 'imported cases'

It's been over two long and tempestuous months since the Chinese government put novel coronavirus epicentre Wuhan and many cities in its Hubei province under complete lockdown and carried out an unprecedented country-wide quarantine exercise of a massive multitude from January 23 onwards. As flowers are blooming across the Middle Kingdom with sweet fragrances filling the air of melancholy, it seems like the long, harsh and perturbing winter may soon pass paving the way for spring. At a time, when the rest of the world is grappling with the perfervid spread of the pathogen pandemic and its tantalus tentacles touching every continent except Antarctica, China seems to have come to terms with the colossal scale of the contagion. Weeks after continuously and constantly combatting against the virulent virus, China was able to shut the floodgate of insidious infections and frightening fatalities for the first time on March 18. That wonder Wednesday, three days after the Ides of March, reported no new infections on the Chinese soil, including its epicentre of Wuhan and Hubei, even though there were 34 'imported' cases on that very day from abroad. More importantly, on the same day, the total number of coronavirus-infected deaths on a single day came down to a single digit of eight. The very next day, China's chuffed National Health Commission (NHC) not only made the all-important "zero infection" announcement, but the defining day also saw the closure of the highest-level investigation by China's National Supervisory Commission on the police action of summoning, Wuhan's whistle-blower ophthalmologist, Dr Li Wenliang, and the report concluded that the police action against the deceased doctor, was not appropriate.
World Health Organization (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador James Chau, who is also the host of The China Current, which continues to run a special series called 'The Novel Outbreak' with interviews, videos, and podcasts with leaders in science, health, and diplomacy, remarked, "I think no one country has got it fully right. But I do see the success part of China has been the transmission, obviously, something went wrong in the beginning. The government has acknowledged that and talked about missteps and shortcomings and dismissed a number of public officials. But in terms of going forward, I think you need to focus on not so much now what went wrong but getting on with the drop. Because that's what is important in a humanitarian crisis. This pandemic should not be simply viewed within the parameter of a health crisis. It's bigger than that. It's a humanitarian crisis or more simply, it's a people's crisis."
Since locking down Wuhan and a dozen other cities in its Hubei province China combatted the contagion on a war footing basis and within almost one month, the resilient country has flattened the curve. 
Although the early spread in Wuhan went out of bounds in January while the death toll rising thick and fast starting from February, the Chinese government carried out multi-pronged combat against the coronavirus using its state-of-the-art healthcare system, disciplined and dedicated workforce, advanced technological prowess, diplomatic maneuvering, solid supply chain, and manufacturing might. 
More importantly, the outbreak, which resulted in the death of over 3,340 and infected more than 83,130 in China, not only brought terrible human suffering to the world's second-largest economy but also posed a threat to its economy brawn in the first quarter with a slowdown with Goldman Sachs estimating a likely shrink of 9 per cent. However, Beijing-based Mehernosh Pastakia, who runs restaurants in the Chinese capital, felt the impact may not be as bigger as it has been projected.
"China would anyway have had a holiday from January 20 onwards, which would have extended till the first week of February, or the end of February. So most of the factories would have anyway been closed anywhere between the first week of February to till the end of the month. So it has been noticed before also that factories actually close down for a month. So the first month of quarantine, actually speaking, would not have been a big loss because that would have been a holiday period anyway. So I don't feel that it would have really pinched the industry," the Indian businessman explained. 
Meanwhile, the country, which began its corona combat as a receiver of aids, accessories, and medicines from several benevolent countries, including Japan, South Korea, and India to name a few, in its early struggles against the outbreak in January, has turned the tide in less than two months to emerge as a giver to the global community with the virus spreading across every continent except for Antarctica. The tell-tale signs of China's strong recovery and steady bounce back have been underlined by the fact that China has already provided assistance to 89 countries and four international organisations to fight against the same coronavirus that brought the world's most populous nation to a standstill, keeping it on tenterhooks for over two months. 
Even though the country-wide partial quarantine hasn't been completely lifted, the Chinese government has already taken a slew of stringent steps to counter the new wave of "imported cases." But Chau cautioned, "China can't be complacent at this crucial juncture. As we see in other outbreaks like Ebola, for example, the battle is not won when you hit zero. The battle is only truly won when you hit a number of days. In the case of Ebola, it's 42 days of zero transmission before it's declared victory." ­
Suvam Pal is a Beijing-based media professional and author