New Delhi: Amit Waikar and his wife Aparna waikar, an Indian resident of Coronavirus hit Shanghai in China, are the first China based Indians who came forward to talk about their experience when the deadly Virus started spreading all over in the China. In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, the couple told about the present situation in China and their hard times during the outbreak in detail. They also told about the health care facilities provided by the China Government.
Amit Waikar, Senior Vice President Asia, Doehler Food and Beverage Ingredients Company Limited based in Shanghai is also associated with Indian Association of Shanghai founded in 1997. He was the president for two terms and now he is senior board member.
He believes that the Chinese Government had taken many bold steps to control this deadly new respiratory pathogen. He also praised Indian Embassy and Indian Consulate in China and Shanghai for their services to the people.
Exclusive: Amit Waikar over coronavirus outbreak in China Here are excerpts from the interview.
Q. Wuhan is 800 Kms from Shanghai. How is the situation of these cities, and the rest of the China?
As some of you may know, Shanghai is about 800 Kms away from Wuhan, which is the epicenter of the coronavirus. We're actually pleased to inform our friends in India that yesterday was the first day, that the number of new cases in Wuhan have gone down to single digit. Also, in the last 10 days, there was not a single new case reported in Shanghai.
Q. As you're in one of the most affected country, what precautions are you guys taking?
Well, the last two months have really been life changing for us. It was around 15th on January, when news from Wuhan came that there's a new virus, people are getting admitted into hospitals, and hospitals are getting crowded. Then, it was around 20th of January, when it was declared as a National Health Emergency.
(Just before the Chinese new year, which started on 25th of January. Because of the virus, none of them could celebrate the New Year.)
That's a really good point, because at New Year, half of the people of this amazingly large country travel! They travel to their villages, their towns, to their cities and they travel Abroad as well. Because new year means Vacations! (It's just like our Diwali.) So it was very difficult time for families as well as for nation. Because, in order to control the spread of virus, the Wuhan and Hubei province had to be virtually put on a lock down.
Therefore, initially life was quite difficult for us, only because we didn't know what to do. But, it's very positive that the information was being spread very very well, across the whole Chinese media. I must also mention and appreciate what the Indian Embassy and Indian Consulate in China and Shanghai have done. There was always a helpline available for us to contact, and we were always been well informed on the situation.
Q. How is the overall healthcare system in China, how do you compare?
The healthcare system in China is very unique, and very different from what we have back home in India. In China, the primary and the tertiary healthcare is all managed by the government. There are really very few private hospitals and private doctors. Say for example, in the city of Wuhan, around 15th of Jan when the virus broke out, the healthcare system in city was simply inadequate to take care of the huge number of the patients which were coming in.
The second challenge for them was, that these government hospitals didn't have any specialized ward where the patients should be kept. That's the reason it was spread so vigorously in Wuhan, because nobody knew how to prevent it. But, because everything was controlled by government, the govt was able to turn around things pretty quickly.
What they did in Wuhan as first step, that they converted a lot of places into 'Make Shift Hospitals'. Then there was this amazing news, which initially we thought is a hoax, that China is building a 1,000 bed hospital in 15 days.
Q. We all have heard the thrilling stories of the world class hospital built by Chinese government in just 10 days. Even after that the number of positive cases were on rise. Did anything went wrong with strategy of Chinese government?
As we said earlier, in the end of January, we heard through social media that the govt is building a massive hospital in just 15 days. First we thought that it's a fake news because, nobody has done that before. But then our friends from Wuhan sent the pictures of the actual location, that's when we found out that it's not a fake news.
From February 4th itself, it started taking patients, and it was in full fledged working condition. So I don't think that the strategy of government failed. What we all need to understand that the isolation of patients at that point of time -when the spread of virus was at peak- was extremely important. If the isolation was not done, then the general hospitals would have actually had even the normal patients getting infected.
We also need to understand that when we think of hospitals, it's not just about patients. We're talking about Doctors, the support staff, nurses, and the family members of the patients. Hence, the isolation was important, and this 1000 bed hospital was specifically for Coronavirus. We got another update just yesterday, that Wuhan is now shutting down all the other 'Make Shift' hospitals. This clearly means that the number of cases have reduced. So I don't think that the strategy of the government didn't work. On the contrary, I think we all need to really be amazed by the speed and the efficiency in which this was done.
Q. There was also a news, that some Chinese company have leaked the so called "actual" number of corona victims, and that is more than 25K in China only. Was that just another fake news? What are your thoughts?
I don't believe it's true. In China we don't use 'Whatsapp', we use 'We Chat' for communication. It is not only for communication but there are other features as well. We can also pay through we chat. Currently over 900 million people -that is more than 90% people of China- are using We chat. Now, through We chat, they've developed a specific app, which every single user has to download and update his profile. Once you do that, the app will tell you the exact number of cases all across China, in your own City, in your province and even in the building you're living in. I must say, that I haven't seen a better use of technology than what china has employees in doing so.
We also need to understand that back during the SARS outbreak, China was heavily criticized for not circulating the correct information, and the severity of that particular epidemic. China had definitely learned their lessons.
Another thing, when we look at the number, we focus on the people that are in isolation. But we also need to look at the population of Wuhan, and then look at the mortality rate or the Death rate. Then you'll understand that there were very very small fraction of people, who first got infected, and of course this fraction is much smaller of people who died.
We were given different colour codes based on that app. For example, if your on a Green colour code which means you can go to office, Orange means you need to go to quarantine, and Red means you must be isolated. So that was the effective use of technology and information and freely available about this virus.
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