Zunyou Wu: China's Spring Festival Might Complicate the Epidemic

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Xiao Ma, who has been working in Beijing for the past two years during the Spring Festival, has not been back home to Zhejiang. After a series of adjustments to China’s epidemic prevention and control policies, Xiao Ma plans to return home this Spring Festival to spend more time with her family, visit friends and relatives, and gather with her brothers and sisters. As a “Chosen worker”, she also confessed that she was worried about “Yang” during the journey back home.

For Chinese people, the 2023 New Year’s Day and Spring Festival are slightly special, as this is the first double holiday after China entered a new phase of epidemic prevention and control.

On Dec. 8, passengers entered the station directly without showing their nucleic acid certificates and health codes at the Beijing West Railway Station.

On the one hand, after the introduction of 20 optimization measures and the “new 10” further optimization measures, China decided to adjust the new coronavirus infection to “Category B” from January 8, 2023.

There are also local B&B owners who say that all the rooms during the Spring Festival have been booked out.

In this context, how to make the long-term low-load operation of transportation quickly adapt to changes in passenger flow, smooth operation, to ensure that people travel safely and smoothly, is the first question of the question of “people flow” during the double holiday.

On the other hand, the current domestic epidemic of new coronavirus infection in China is still running at a high level, and the peak of the epidemic is predicted to come in many places. With the rapid increase in the number of infected people, some places are facing huge pressure on medical treatment.

In an interview with the media on the afternoon of Dec. 29, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China CDC, said that all infectious disease epidemics spread and spread as long as there is movement of people. The more frequently and quickly people move, and the greater the distance, the faster they spread and the more frequently they spread.

How to avoid large-scale movement of people may lead to the expansion of the epidemic and other issues, is the second question of the question of “movement of people” during the double holiday.

How to answer the question of “movement of people” during the double holiday period scientifically and carefully? China has already started to write at several levels.

At the official level, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council recently issued a notice to deploy the relevant work during the New Year’s Day and Spring Festival in 2023, which proposes to adapt to changes in passenger flow to do a good job of supplying capacity, strengthening passenger transport in hot areas, routes and periods, optimizing transport connections and passenger interchanges, strengthening road congestion and smooth, reducing passenger travel congestion and gathering.

The Ministry of Transport has also issued a notice requesting that passengers around the world no longer check the negative nucleic acid test certificate and health code, no longer carry out the landing inspection, no longer implement temperature measurement. December 29 notice issued again clearly, since January 8 next year, the abolition of passenger access to passenger transport stations, taking public transport temperature measurement requirements.

The 2023 Spring Festival will begin on January 7, the transportation sector since January 8 to implement the relevant optimization and adjustment measures. Some believe that this is a timely and pragmatic move to minimize the impact of the epidemic on economic and social development, and to provide convenience for people to travel and return home for the double holiday.

Many places in China are also deploying in advance to take advantage of the current “window period” to actively deal with the possible pressure of epidemic prevention and control brought by the movement of people during the double festivals.

On December 26, the Heilongjiang Provincial Leading Group and Provincial Command Video Conference pointed out that in view of the recent increase in the number of infected people and the new situation and new changes in the Spring Festival, the province should do a good job of stockpiling materials, capacity reserves and emergency plans in advance, implement the various tasks and measures for the prevention and control of the epidemic, and make every effort to win the hard battle in the new phase of epidemic prevention and control.

Jiangxi Governor Ye Jianchun 27 in the province’s epidemic prevention and control of emergency command meeting, a comprehensive assessment of the large-scale return of personnel to the rural epidemic prevention and control challenges, seize the opportunity to do the work, do a good job to guard the health of the rural population, so that the majority of farmers, especially returning to their homes, a healthy reunion, safe for the holidays.

Chinese officials issued a work plan on the 27th, requiring the protection of visiting family members staggered orderly home for the New Year and return to work. All places can explore the implementation of flexible vacation, staggered vacation policy to reduce the pressure of concentrated public travel. Some places also advocate staggered homecoming and peak travel for the public to calm down the epidemic peak.

Wu Zunyou said that China’s Spring Festival will have a large number of people moving around, superimposed on the risk of respiratory infections in winter, making the epidemic potentially more complicated. All regions are carefully monitoring, analyzing and researching information about the epidemic to maximize the impact of the epidemic peak and minimize the impact of the epidemic on work and life.

For the general public, the best you can do is still to maintain personal protective measures. The Beijing CDC recently advised that when taking airplanes, trains, subways, buses and other means of transportation on New Year’s Day and Spring Festival homecoming, it is important to wear a mask and pay attention to hand hygiene and other personal protection.

Xiao Ma also said that she intends to buy a direct high-speed train ticket to her hometown to return home with the shortest journey, wearing an N95 mask throughout, and carrying more alcohol disinfectant wipes. As for whether she will buy a box lunch on the train, she told reporters, “not to eat, in order not to take off the mask.”