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While 5 cases in a city of 11 million doesn't sound like much, yesterday in Wuhan Ordered To Test All Residents Following New COVID Spike, following the detection of a handful of cases, the State Council ordered Wuhan City to `make every effort' to control this outbreak.
Today, it is Jilin City in Northeast China - which overnight reported 5 symptomatic and 1 asymptomatic COVD-19 case - that has been ordered locked down in order to quash a potentially larger outbreak.Today Jilin City (pop. 4.5 million) has announced (see translation below) the shuttering of public venues, the banning of gatherings, the shutdown of public transportation, and the sale of antibiotics, and fever reducing medications. `Fever patients' are required to go to designated fever clinics.
Announcement on the further strengthening of epidemic management and control measures in the urban area of Jilin City
Source: Jilin Municipal Health Commission Time: 2020-05-13 07:55
In response to the severe situation of the prevention and control of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, the leadership team of the epidemic prevention and control work in Jilin City decided to further strengthen the epidemic prevention and control measures in accordance with the requirements of “internal non-proliferation, external prevention, and strict control” in the urban areas of Jilin according to the high-risk areas. And resolutely fight the people's war, the overall war, and the war of prevention and control for epidemic prevention and control. The relevant matters are now announced as follows:
1. Strengthen comprehensive investigation measures. Give full play to the role of community villages, industry departments, agencies, enterprises and institutions, and implement grid-based and carpet-based comprehensive investigations on close cases of confirmed cases, overseas returnees and residents in high-risk areas, so that no one household will be missed one person.
2. Strengthen community village closure measures. Urban districts take residential quarters as the unit, and rural villages take natural villages as the unit. The closed management is fully implemented. Code scanning, registration, and temperature measurement are done well, and people are strictly prevented from entering and leaving at will. Villages with strong accessibility in urban-rural junctions or along highways should form patrols and strictly strengthen control.
3. Strengthen the prevention and control responsibilities of government agencies, institutions and various social entities. Maintain the responsibility of the main body through the establishment of regulations, temperature measurement and disinfection, and closed management.
4. Strengthen traffic control measures. All passenger lines and chartered tours will be suspended, and freight vehicles will pass normally. Persons traveling to other places must hold a negative report of nucleic acid test at their own expense within 48 hours and strictly isolate themselves before they can register out of the city.
5. Strengthen pharmacy clinic control measures. Urban pharmacies and clinics stop selling "one-retreat and two-antibody" medicines (antipyretic, anti-viral, antibiotics). Clinics prohibit the admission of fever patients, and guide them to designated medical institutions for hot consultations, and shut down all violations .
6. Strengthen the management and control measures for places where people entertain such as culture and entertainment. All indoor scenic spots, movie theaters, dance halls, entertainment halls, commercial performance venues, Internet cafes, indoor stadiums, chess and card rooms, mahjong halls, billiard halls, baths and other personnel gathering places in the city will be closed for business.
7. Strengthen the control measures for public gathering activities. Personnel gathering activities will be suspended, and no units or individuals are allowed to hold any form of dinner party. Dine-in meals are forbidden in government agencies, institutions and institutions. The dining staff of the commercial catering unit shall not exceed 3-5 people per table, with an interval of more than 1 meter, and advocate the provision of takeaway services.
8. Strengthen the mandatory measures for wearing masks. All personnel entering public places and taking public transportation such as buses, taxis, and car-hailing must wear masks.
9. Strengthen measures to eliminate killing and cleaning. Strictly implement daily killing and cleaning measures for public gathering places such as government agencies, institutions, shopping malls, supermarkets, and stations, as well as various public transportation such as taxis and buses.
10. Strengthen material security measures. Do a good job in ensuring the supply of essential necessities such as masks, disinfectants and other epidemic prevention materials, and "vegetable baskets" and "rice bags", severely cracking down on prices and hoarding, and ensure a stable and orderly market.
11. Strengthen prevention and control according to law. Units and individuals who refuse to implement relevant requirements shall be held accountable according to law and regulations.
The above-mentioned control measures will be implemented from the date of promulgation, and the time of cancellation will be notified in accordance with changes in epidemic prevention and control situation.
Special announcement.
Attachment: List of designated medical institutions for nucleic acid detection in Jilin City
China continues to pursue a strict `zero tolerance' policy in regards to community spread of COVID-19, and appears willing to order far-reaching, economically painful, and often draconian measures to stop even the smallest of outbreaks.
Policies, that admittedly, would be all but impossible to implement outside of China.The obvious take-away here is that China greatly fears an uncontrollable resurgence of this disease, and is willing to do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening.
Whether, or for how long, that approach can be successful - or if there are any lessons to be learned from this approach - remains to be seen.Stay tuned.
