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Some large cities in China have carried out strict measures to prevent and control the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong province has effectively curbed transmission in a short period of time when the city was hit by a wave of the epidemic in March.
Lu Hongzhou, head of the city's virus control expert panel, recently shared Shenzhen's experience in a recent interview with The Intellectual, a mobile new media platform.
Here are some excerpts.
Q: Why did Shenzhen decide to "slow down"?
Lu: If people were not at a standstill, the transmission chain would extend.
When only about 40 positive cases were discovered in the mass testing by 4 pm on March 14, that showed the epidemic was controllable. I was confident the city would reopen on March 21.
Q: How could Shenzhen "slow down" from March 14 to 20 and quickly cut off transmission?
Lu: The Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission has played a key role in organizing medical teams to analyze and research daily conditions.
When sporadic cases were reported on March 12 and 13, it was hard to eliminate new infections as there were multiple transmission chains.
The city tried to block transmission sources from Hong Kong, such as stopping entry of truck drivers from HK, but sending locals to drive the trucks from the ports. It also cut off the routes of stowaways.
After that, we put all people on standstill to take nucleic acid tests, which effectively reduced the transmission risk.
Q: Did the expert group judge close contacts based on big data? Or was there other evidence?
Lu: It was based on detailed epidemiological investigation and big data.
But sometimes, it's hard to precisely identify the space and time for close contacts. For example, in a large shopping mall, a closed environment, one positive case was found and we could confirm when the person had been to the shopping mall, but it is hard to identify his close contacts.
People within two meters of the positive case should be identified as close contacts. But if the scope is enlarged to tens of meters, there would be too many close contacts.
If close contacts are not identified precisely, it could lead to a waste of resources. When thousands of people are isolated, what about follow-up services? Are there enough hotel rooms?
In addition to judgement of experts, information transparency is also needed. You need to tell the public at that period there was a positive case. Then if there were some people at the place at that time, they should proactively carry out self-isolation and take nucleic acid tests.
Q: Shenzhen has set up 1,530 service areas for nucleic acid tests, and lots of sites for people to take tests. When did that start?
Lu: Besides the fever clinics and pharmacies, Shenzhen has set up a supervision system covering people, things and environment (including sewage).
The city has established testing sites by the standard of one site per 30,000 people and offered online services for people to find sites. The city had nearly 7,000 testing sites at the peak, and around 30,000 medical workers operating them.
Q: Does Shenzhen have a backup plan for a situation where thousands of people are infected each day, like Shanghai?
Lu: Shenzhen has set up standardized testing sites, and strictly followed the rules of people scanning health codes at public places. A lot of measures have helped us discover infected people quickly, which would make large scale infection unlikely.
Q: You talked about the normalization of nucleic acid tests. Does this mean residents must take tests every day?
Lu: The normalization is because some places across the country have not brought the epidemic under control, and infection clusters may happen still. Through the tests, Shenzhen would discover the cases in time.
We can ensure the dynamic zero-COVID strategy eliminates cases in a short time.
Q: How can the supply of essential goods be secured during the closed-off management period?
Lu: In our locked down, controlled and precautionary zones, the civil servants of the government departments are transformed into on-the-spot volunteers.
If there is a place heavily impacted, volunteers from other places would go to help. We mobilized grassroots civil servants and Party members.
Q: What was the economic cost of the city's COVID-19 control measures?
Lu: Some people still worked at their workplaces or homes. The cost of nucleic acid testing was low, since the test was one tube for 10 people.
Compared with the potential loss over a protracted period of time, the cost over such a short period was low.
Further, the value of human health is priceless.
Q: Were all infected people hospitalized?
Lu: Whether mild, severe or asymptomatic, we transferred all to the negative pressure wards, because asymptomatic people are also infectious.
Can Shenzhen's experience be popularized?
Q: Shenzhen still carries out tests every three days, is this for everyone?
Lu: Yes, every 72 hours. We adjust due to the situation. If there is no case in a long period, then we would no longer test.
Q: How does Shenzhen manage nursing homes now?
Lu: Nursing homes are under closed management right now to minimize personnel exchanges and visits. In addition, staff conduct nucleic acid testing regularly.
Q: Do you provide door-to-door vaccination services for the elderly?
Lu: Yes, we do. That will help improve the vaccination rate.
Q: What is the vaccination rate of the elderly in Shenzhen now?
Lu: We now have administered three doses to more than 90 percent of elderly people.
Q: When will we open up?
Lu: We can't tell the specific time. We can only open up after there is extensive mass immunization. We can't rely on natural infection, like Western countries, which leads to so many deaths. Therefore, we still rely on the progress of science and technology to help us win the fight against the epidemic.
About the interviewee
Lu Hongzhou was born in Huaibei, East China's Anhui province, on March 24, 1966. He received his medical degree at Shanghai Medical College Fudan University in 1999. In March 2002, he gained a postdoctoral degree in molecular epidemiology at the Vanderbilt University.
Since 2004, he served the Shanghai Municipal Clinical Center for Public Health for many years. On August 10, 2021, he took up a post as president of Shenzhen Third People's Hospital.
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