key: cord-254512-dct045kl
authors: Chen, Libin; Cai, Juncheng; Lin, Qiuyan; Xiang, Bin; Ren, Tao
title: Imported COVID-19 Cases Pose New Challenges for China
date: 2020-04-10
journal: J Infect
DOI: 10.1016/j.jinf.2020.03.048
sha: 
doc_id: 254512
cord_uid: dct045kl

nan

Libin Chen a,b,c,d , Juncheng Cai a,b,c,d , Qiuyan Lin a,b,c,d , Bin Xiang a,b,c,d* ,and Tao That translates to a mortality rate of 9.51%, which is more than twice as high as that For China-the initial epicenter of the outbreak-two stages of the epidemic have passed ( Figure 1A ). The first stage is the outbreak period (December 31, 2019 to February 29, 2020), which entailed the period from the first detection of cases to the peak of the epidemic which saw a rapid increase in the number of confirmed cases, and to the time when the growth rate slowed down to less than 200 new confirmed cases per day. In the second stage, which lasted from March 1, 2020 to March 21, 2020, the number of existing cases in most Chinese provinces was reduced to less than 10, respectively, whilst the number of newly confirmed cases in Wuhan, Hubei province, the worst-hit city, was slowly approaching zero. It was during this stage-more specifically on the March 4-that foreign imported cases to appear.

During these two stages, the Chinese government, its populous, and its medical professionals had managed to stabilized the deadly epidemic with great deliberation and sacrifices 6 . Currently, however, the situation in China has entered its third was not capable of efficient screening for every arrival, resulting in a large number of passenger flow jams in the airport lobby, and subsequently causing high risk of infection. Therefore, the conundrum regarding the control over overseas imported cases as well as the prevention of a second epidemic outbreak that is fast approaching is a problem that China needs to pay special attention to, especially after the first second-generation case imported from abroad had appeared. It shows that the current prevention and control measures have yet proven to be consummate.

As the global epidemic continues in the outbreak period, more and more overseas Chinese citizens or ethnic Chinese, even non-Chinese, will choose to come to China to escape from the epidemic 7 . The government has shortened the processing time for immigration procedures and required all arrivals from other countries to be quarantined. However, the Chinese government needs to ensure that every overseas arrival would have passed a quarantine period of at least 14 days, and tested negative to COVID-19 before they can conduct social activities in the country, and such measures are not easy to implement. China has managed to control the outbreak of the domestic epidemic, but there are still new issues waiting for them to deal with.

In addition, China's outstanding performance in the first stage of the epidemic has provided the world with valuable insights and earned two months of breathing room for the world to respond the novel virus. However, due to the lack of attention and the spread of misinformation regarding COVID-19 in many countries, the disease has seriously threatened the whole world 4 , bringing China's epidemic to the third stage. Therefore, based on the One Health model 8 , the outbreak of COVID-19 should concern all humankind, for no country can survive alone. The real victory over COVID-19 will require concerted efforts from around the globe.

None.

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