The novel Coronavirus, which turned out to be a major health crisis in the world, emerged in China's Wuhan city and spread across the globe within a few months. While the world leaders continued to accuse China of its mishandling of the virus outbreak in Hubei province, officials on Sunday released a white paper on China's battle against the pandemic to clarify issues.
The official document was issued by the State Council Information Office, titled "Fighting COVID-19: China in Action." The document consists of four chapters -- 'China's Fight against the Epidemic: A Test of Fire,' 'Well-Coordinated Prevention, Control and Treatment,' 'Assembling a Powerful Force to Beat the Virus' and 'Building a Global Community of Health for All.'
It also includes one of the most controversial issues of this year; the transparency of China. The white paper claims that China has released information on COVID-19 in an open and transparent manner as required by law. In addition, the document says, "It released authoritative and detailed information as early as possible on a regular basis. Thus effectively responding to public concern and building public consensus."
What does the white paper explain?
As the COVID-19 has emerged in Wuhan, for Chinese authorities it was a crisis as well as a "major test." The document explains that the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government addressed the epidemic as a top priority, and taken swift action. "General Secretary Xi Jinping has taken personal command, planned the response, overseen the general situation and acted decisively, pointing the way forward in the fight against the epidemic," mentioned the document.
The paper also claims that a centralized and efficient command system has formed a strong guarantee for the country to win the all-out people's war against the Coronavirus. Chinese local authorities and sectors have followed the leadership and instructions provided by Beijing.
Earlier, another internal document revealed that six days after top Chinese authorities understood that they are probably facing a pandemic due to the new Coronavirus, the initial epicenter Wuhan authorities allowed a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people. Meanwhile, millions of Chinese nationals began their annual trip home for the Lunar New Year celebrations.
On the seventh day, that is January 20, China President Xi Jinping warned citizens about the COVID-19 pandemic but by that time over 3,000 people had been infected during almost a week of public silence, revealed internal documents.
It showed that Ma Xiaowei, the head of China's National Health Commission laid out a grim evaluation of Coronavirus situation in a confidential January 14 teleconference with prudential health officials. The aim behind the teleconference was to convey instructions on COVID-19 from President Xi, Premier Li Keqiang and Vice Premier Sun Chunlan but does not specify what exactly those instructions were. As per the memo, Ma said, "The epidemic situation is still severe and complex, the most severe challenge since SARS in 2003, and is likely to develop into a major public health event."
Treatment of patients
Starting from an early outbreak to pandemic, all-out nationwide effort hasbeen launched to ensure the safety of the Chinese citizens, the government took the most comprehensive, the strictest and the most thorough prevention and control measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak, claims the white paper.
It says: "The CPC Central Committee set up a leading group for novel Coronavirus prevention and control and sent the Central Steering Group to Hubei. A joint epidemic prevention and control mechanism and in due course a mechanism to facilitate resumption of work were set up under the State Council. Resources were mobilized nationwide to assist Hubei and Wuhan. Major public health emergency responses were activated across China."
When it comes to ensuring the health safety of the Chinese nationals, there are many experts and health officials who claimed earlier that at the initial stage they tried to warn people about the new virus, but local authorities silenced them. Wuhan doctor and Coronavirus whistleblower Li Wenliang and another doctor Ai Fen are among those people who found the evidence of the virus at a very early stage but authorities neither listen to them nor bothered to aware people about it.
Using technology to combat Coronavirus
From space missions to fighting Coronavirus, China used its one of the strongest weapons, technology, to achieve its goals. In terms of COVID-19, China has made full use of science and technology to win the battle against the dangerous virus, while many people worried about the surveillance issue.
Earlier, reports revealed that when China was struggling to curb the Coronavirus spread, the police officers were equipped with high-tech AI-powered smart helmets which allowed the officers to find out people with high temperatures on the streets.
Check the entire document here:
