Lin Min

linmin67@hotmail.com

SHENZHEN witnessed a milestone in its fight against COVID-19 on Thursday when the city’s last coronavirus patient was discharged from the hospital. As of Saturday there had not been any new local COVID-19 cases reported for 98 consecutive days. Home to about 20 million people, Shenzhen has had a total of 462 COVID-19 cases, including three deaths, since the first case was discovered in the city Jan. 14. Although the risk of a virus comeback is still lurking as much of the world remains devastated by the pandemic, Shenzhen can now declare victory in the Phase I battle against the worst epidemic since the city’s inception more than four decades ago. Shenzhen Daily now presents the major events of the city’s battle against COVID-19, based on official reports published in Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.

Early alarm

A report on China Central Television on Dec. 31, 2019 prompted Shenzhen’s health commission to take immediate action. The report said the health commission of Wuhan, capital of Central China’s Hubei Province, issued an urgent notice Dec. 30 requiring hospitals to make preparations for the treatment of pneumonia caused by an unknown reason, and that the national health commission had sent experts to Wuhan.

Upon hearing the news, Shenzhen designated the No. 3 People’s Hospital as a special hospital for treating patients with the mysterious disease.

On Jan. 2, the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital issued an alert regarding infectious diseases and required all fever patients with a recent travel history to visit the special fever clinic to minimize in-hospital infection risks. Medical institutions across the city were all put on a high alert.

First case in SZ

At 4 p.m. Jan. 8, a woman in her 60s visited the Shenzhen Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital Xueyuan Community Clinic, complaining of sore muscles and fatigue. She also had a fever of 38.5 degrees Celsius. During consultation, Dr. Li Tianhao learned that the patient’s relatives had just returned from Wuhan and exhibited similar symptoms. Dr. Li, who had just received training on how to handle pneumonia with an unknown cause, became suspicious.

After the woman left, the doctor filed an infectious disease report and called his hospital to trace whether the woman’s illness was related to the outbreak in Wuhan. Dr. Li’s report raised the alarm at the city’s center for disease prevention and control (CDC).

Investigation by the Shenzhen CDC found out that her daughter’s family and parents-in-law returned to Shenzhen on Jan. 4 after visiting relatives in Wuhan on Dec. 29. The parents-in-law and their relatives in Wuhan all had low fevers.

CDC officers conducted flu, SARS and MERS tests on the parents-in-law immediately. On Jan. 9 the tests returned negative, pointing to an increased likelihood of an unknown virus.

On the same day, the team of experts from Beijing determined that the mysterious pneumonia cases in Wuhan were caused by a novel coronavirus.

With persistent symptoms, the parents-in-law visited the fever clinic of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital on the evening of Jan. 10. The hospital highly suspected the couple were infected with the novel coronavirus and sent them to Shenzhen No. 3 People’s Hospital the next day.

The No. 3 hospital developed its own method of diagnosis according to the published genome of the virus, and the husband tested positive Jan. 14. The result came 12 hours before the Central Government’s test kits arrived in Shenzhen. Later that day, both the husband and wife tested positive using the Beijing test kits.

The next day, the woman who first consulted Dr. Li, her daughter, son-in-law and grandson all tested positive, leading to the discovery of Guangdong’s first family cluster of what was later known as COVID-19. The cluster indicated a high probability of second-generation infection because one of them did not travel to Wuhan, and showed that children are also susceptible.

The Shenzhen cases alerted Zhong Nanshan, China’s top epidemiologist, who visited Shenzhen with Guangdong officials to investigate.

After looking at the Shenzhen cluster, Zhong determined that the new coronavirus could be transmitted from person to person.

On Jan. 18, entrusted by the national health commission, Zhong, 84, traveled to Wuhan.

On Jan. 20, Zhong declared to the nation on a TV program that there had been human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.

News media later praised the timely discovery of the city’s first COVID-19 cases and its swift response.

In full action

On Jan. 15, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital received a critically ill patient who was suspected of having contracted the novel coronavirus.

The patient was also Shenzhen’s first intubated patient during the outbreak. The city was now facing a rising number of cases and the emergence of critical patients.

Instructed by Shenzhen Party chief Wang Weizhong and Mayor Chen Rugui, the city’s health commission convened a coordination meeting, mapping out emergency plans under the principles of “early detection, early reporting, early isolation and early treatment,” and “centralized patients, centralized specialists and centralized treatment.”

On the evening of Jan. 16, city leaders met to launch a coordination mechanism to tackle the epidemic.

By 8 p.m. Jan. 20, the city had reported nine COVID-19 cases, which were the first group of confirmed cases outside of Wuhan.

On the evenings of Jan. 20 and 22, city leaders convened a meeting and a video conference, and required the city to place epidemic control and people’s health as the top priority. A top-level command office, headed by Wang, with Chen acting as the office’s deputy commander, was immediately set up. Eleven task forces were also swiftly formed to lead the city’s efforts in different aspects including epidemic prevention, treatment of patients, measures for communities and housing estates, supplies, technological research and information release.

The city’s health commission released a list of 49 fever clinics across the city, where medical workers were on duty around the clock. At the same time, the CDC launched biological tests at major transport hubs, where health checks were also initiated.

City in standstill

On Jan. 23, the day before Chinese New Year’s Eve, news of Wuhan’s lockdown sent shockwaves across Shenzhen, with roads and streets suddenly becoming emptied as most people avoided venturing out of their homes, gripped by anxiety, fear and uncertainty. The holiday plans of millions of people were upended.

That evening, Guangdong declared a top-level emergency response, and accordingly Shenzhen started a “war time” preparedness. The city’s leading epidemic response group issued its first public notice, banning public gatherings, requiring people from epidemic-hit areas to register in communities, mandating temperature checks at all transport stations and border checkpoints, and instructing all confirmed or suspected patients to be isolated for treatment or medical observation.

The once-bustling megacity suddenly froze to a standstill. At Shenzhen No. 3 People’s Hospital and fever clinics, medical workers worked in a hectic schedule of testing and treating patients.

Most public servants and government employees returned to their posts after receiving orders to cut short their holidays.

Checkpoints were set up on all highways entering Shenzhen, where the temperature of every inbound passenger was checked.

Community workers, policemen, clinic staff and volunteers visited homes to screen suspected patients and close contacts. Tens of thousands of officials from municipal and district governments were sent to communities to supervise local preparedness and epidemic control efforts.

On Feb. 7, Shenzhen imposed closed-off management on all housing estates and living quarters to ensure all high-risk individuals received tests and underwent a 14-day quarantine. Any building where a confirmed case was discovered would be locked down.

All residents of a building in the Gemdale Homage Hill housing estate in Futian were placed under a 14-day quarantine in early February after two family members of a household tested positive.

Social workers and volunteers helped shore up defenses at communities, and delivered food and other necessities to the homes of those quarantined. Donations poured in. As of 12 a.m. April 30, individuals, companies and institutions in Shenzhen had donated a total of 4.49 billion yuan (US$630 million) in cash and goods to help the country fight the virus.