Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 26, 2020; 8(14): 2959-2976
Published online Jul 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i14.2959
Effects of policies and containment measures on control of COVID-19 epidemic in Chongqing
Xiao-Hua Liang, Xian Tang, Ye-Tao Luo, Min Zhang, Ze-Pei Feng
Xiao-Hua Liang, Xian Tang, Ye-Tao Luo, Min Zhang, Ze-Pei Feng, Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Key Laboratory of Pediatrics in Chongqing, China International Science and Technology Cooperation Center of Child Development and Critical Disorders, Chongqing 400014, China
Author contributions: Liang XH conceived and designed the study; Zhang M and Feng ZP participated in the acquisition of the data; Luo YT analyzed the data; Liang XH and Tang X drafted and revised the manuscript; and all authors critically reviewed and approved the final paper.
Supported by School Funded Project of COVID-19 of Chongqing Medical University, No. CQMUNCP0204; Young Scientists Fund Program of the Education Commission of Chongqing, No. KJQN201900443; National Key Research and Development Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, No. 2017YFC0211705; Young Scientists Fund Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81502826; and General Program of the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, No. 2014M562289.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Chongqing Medical University.
Informed consent statement: Participants were informed about the plan about our study details. And if they agreed to participate in, written informed consent was obtained from each participant prior to their inclusion in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: Data are available from Xiao-Hua Liang (contact via xiaohualiang@hospital.cqmu.edu.cn or liangxiaohua666@sina.com).
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement checklist of items and prepared and revised the manuscript accordingly.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xiao-Hua Liang, MD, PhD, Associate Research Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Key Laboratory of Pediatrics in Chongqing, China International Science and Technology Cooperation Center of Child Development and Critical Disorders, No. 136, Second Zhongshan Road, Chongqing 400014, China. xiaohualiang@hospital.cqmu.edu.cn
Received: May 19, 2020
Peer-review started: May 19, 2020
First decision: June 4, 2020
Revised: June 11, 2020
Accepted: June 29, 2020
Article in press: June 29, 2020
Published online: July 26, 2020
Processing time: 65 Days and 21.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging, rapidly evolving disease that spreads through the respiratory system and is highly contagious. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. In China, the pandemic was controlled after 2 mo through effective policies and containment measures. Describing the detailed policies and containment measures used to control the epidemic in Chongqing will provide a reference for the prevention and control of COVID-19 in other areas of the world.

AIM

To explore the effects of different policies and containment measures on the control of the COVID-19 epidemic in Chongqing.

METHODS

Epidemiological data on COVID-19 in Chongqing were prospectively collected from January 21 to March 15, 2020. The policies and prevention measures implemented by the government during the epidemic period were also collected. Trend analysis was performed to explore the impact of the main policy measures on the effectiveness of the control of COVID-19 in Chongqing.

RESULTS

As of March 15, the cumulative incidence of COVID-19 in Chongqing was 1.84/100000 (576 cases) and the infection fatality rate was 1.04% (6/576). The spread of COVID-19 was controlled by effective policies that involved establishing a group for directing the COVID-19 epidemic control effort; strengthening guidance and supervision; ensuring the supply of daily necessities and medical supplies and equipment to residents; setting up designated hospitals; implementing legal measures; and enhancing health education. Medical techniques were implemented to improve the recovery rate and control the epidemic. Policies such as “the lockdown of Wuhan”, “initiating a first-level response to major public health emergencies”, and “implementing the closed management of residential communities” significantly curbed the spread of COVID-19. Optimizing the diagnosis process, shortening the diagnosis time, and constructing teams of clinical experts facilitated the provision of “one team of medical experts for each patient” treatment for severe patients, which significantly improved the recovery rate and reduced the infection fatality rate.

CONCLUSION

The prevention policies and containment measures implemented by the government and medical institutions are highly effective in controlling the spread of the epidemic and increasing the recovery rate of COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: Prevention policies; Containment measures; COVID-19; Epidemic trend; Control effectiveness; Public health

Core tip: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is an emerging, rapidly evolving situation, and effective treatment measures are difficult to formulate in a short time. Public health policies and containment measures play a vital role in the prevention and control of COVID-19. Policies such as “the lockdown of Wuhan”, “initiating a first-level response to major public health emergencies”, and “implementing the closed management of residential communities” significantly controlled the spread of COVID-19. Optimizing the diagnosis process, shortening the diagnosis time, and constructing teams of clinical experts facilitated the provision of “one team of medical experts for each patient” treatment for severe cases, significantly improved the recovery rate, and reduced the incidence rate (1.84/100000) and the infection fatality rate [1.04% (6/576)] of COVID-19.