Hyderabad: China downgraded the risk level of the coronavirus in its epicentre Wuhan from high to medium and lifted travel restrictions in and out of the province after the nine-week lockdown.
China has decided to lift the three-month lockdown on more than 56 million people in the central Hubei province.
Scientists and the rest of the world are keeping a close watch on whether easing the lockdown results in an emergence of new cases. So far, these fears have not come to pass as China has reported very fewer numbers of coronavirus positive cases.
"It’s time to relax the lockdown, but we need to be alert for a potential second wave of infections," says Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong, who will be following the situation in China.
Wuhan went under complete lockdown after the positive cases saw a spike. China restricted travel inside its borders closed most businesses, schools, and universities and told people to stay at home, in an attempt to contain the spread of the deadly virus.
Even as China eased the lockdown, it will carry out extensive testing and contact tracing to prevent the positive case from resurfacing. And obviously social distancing.
China has sealed its borders to prevent cases from being imported. Fourteen days quarantine will be must for residents returning to the country.
Researchers say that China contained the virus because of its aggressive approach. Social- distancing measures, extensive testing, isolating people who were infected led to control the transmission.
Cowling says that countries like Italy and Spain could face more challenges to return back to normal life as they have focused mainly on slowing the virus through social distancing without intensive testing and contact tracing.
And yet, the risk of new outbreaks in China is high given the ease with which the virus passes between people, and the possibility that some infections still linger undetected, says Gabriel Leung, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of Hong Kong.
It’s possible that one lockdown might not be enough, and severe efforts to suppress the virus might be needed again, he says.
"The tension between health, protecting the economy and emotional well-being will vex every government for the foreseeable future."
Life in the Chinese city of Hubei province hasn’t returned to normal yet, but people are slowly leaving their homes and returning to work, and factories are reopening.
According to the government authorities, Universities, schools and child-care centers will remain shut.
Travel in and out of the provincial capital, Wuhan, remains restricted until 8 April. Since 18 March, Hubei has seen a sharp decline in the positive cases.
Even as movement and economic activity in China increased in late February for all provinces except Hubei, nearly no positive cases were reported. Even as activity restarted in Hubei in March, the numbers of new cases remained low.
The virus would have difficulty re-establishing itself in the community if a significant portion of people, between 50% and 70%, were infected and are now immune, says Leung.
He further said that the 81,000 cases reported in Wuhan, those people are now immune to the disease. But it is probably less than 10%, which means there are lots of people still vulnerable to infection.
A vaccine would increase the percentage of immune people, but no vaccines are expected for at least a year. “These numbers don’t allow a sigh of relief,” he added.
Notably, China is still monitoring COVID-19 extensively. Provinces issue all residents a QR code, a type of barcode containing information that is revealed when scanned, based on their health details and travel history. If a person has remained in areas considered safe in China or has been quarantined and tested negative for the disease, they are assigned a ‘green status’ — the lowest risk — which allows them to cross provincial borders, enter hospitals and residential areas, etc.
This way the infected person can be prevented from mingling with others. Not only this, if a new case is detected the government can track that person’s movements and pinpoint people they might have come in contact with.
Most of the countries grappling with the outbreaks, including Italy, Spain and the United States, are relying on social-distancing policies and getting people to stay home.
China implemented those measures, but it also built new hospitals and conducted extensive testing. Then, officials went door to door to check people’s temperatures. They tested anyone with a fever and isolated positive cases.
This extra step helped China in containing the virus.
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