The Response of the Government's Emergency System to the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in China: A Retrospective Comparative Study

Abstract

Background: Since the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan city and then rapidly spread throughout china, the practices of the government’s emergency response and management of medical system to prevent the COVID-19 was vitally crucial. However, the studies about China's emergency management of COVID-19 prevention and control were scarce. We aimed to explore the government’s emergency response practices to COVID-19 prevention by comparing with H7N9 avian influenza (H7N9) in China. Methods: A qualitative comparative study was conducted in the study, by using a set of 6 key time nodes selected from international literature to form a frame of reference for the comparative analysis of the emergency response to H7N9 (2013) in Shanghai and COVID-19 (Wuhan city) prevention and control in China. Findings: 1) The hospital reporting speed--the first case report to the local CDC, for H7N9(2013) in Shanghai and COVID-19 in Wuhan city was 6 and 19 days, respectively. 2). The pathogen inspection speed-- the period from case reporting to technically confirming and re-checking pathogens, for COVID-19 was much quicker than that in H7N9(2013) in Shanghai (12days vs. 31days). 3). The government responding speed --from re-checking pathogens to the local government’s emergency response, for H7N9 (2013) in Shanghai and COVID-19 in Wuhan was 4 and 15 days, respectively. 4) The total emergency disposal time of local government was 5 days longer in COVID-19 in Wuhan city than H7N9 avian influenza (2013) in Shanghai (46 days vs. 41 days).InterpretationFrom H7N9 to COVID-19, the speed of detecting unknown pathogens greatly improved in China, whereas the hospital reporting of epidemics and decision-making by government of Hubei province was significantly slow, which might be an important influential factor of the outbreak of COVID-19. Improving the emergency management could lessen the adverse social effects of the emerging infectious disease and public health crisis in the future. Funding: National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.71874033) and Key project of Philosophy and Social Science Research of the Ministry of Education (Grant No. 15JZD029). Competing Interest: The authors declare no competing financial interest. Ethical Approval: Not applicable.