Having weathered the surge of SARS-CoV-2, China has not seen a second wave of the pandemic yet. However, questions surrounding the country’s struggles with data as well as its initial assessment of the infection remain.

The COVID-19 pandemic is nearing a tally of 50 million cases globally. Over 1.2 million of them have succumbed to the mysterious virus. The country where the virus, SARS-CoV-2, was first reported, has seemingly emerged from the ruins, relatively unscathed.

In the first four months of this year, more than 84,000 cases were reported across China. The following six months reported only 7520. HealthLEADS looks at the data from the global pandemic’s country of origin.

As China’s cases dwindled, the epicentre of the pandemic shifted to Europe, the US, and India. The world saw hundreds of thousands of cases per day. However, China saw no significant second wave of infections.

The national capital Beijing saw an outbreak in the month of July. Authorities adopted a different strategy – sealing off selected residencies, instead of the entire province or city. Mass testing was done, and over half of Beijing was screened within days.

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Reopening ground zero

Though international movements stayed restricted, domestic air traffic regained most of its pre-pandemic numbers by July.

In August, China started reopening all educational institutions. All of 2842 educational institutions of Wuhan opened their doors to over a million students.

With an increase in the number of imported cases, the chief of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) stated that the country cannot afford to open itself to the world completely while the mortality remains high.

The Case Fatality Rate (CFR) in the country, although declining slowly, remains over five percent.

Retrospective addition to the death toll in April spiked the CFR. This also reiterated questions surrounding China’s struggles with data as well as its initial assessment of the infection.

China has fielded several vaccine candidates for COVID-19, a number of which are in later stages of clinical trials. Reports emerged from the eastern city of Yiwu, of vaccine shots being offered to members of the general public. The vaccine, which has not completed clinical trials yet, is available to anyone who wishes to get the jab for $60. Curiously enough, the drive was not rolled by the government, but the ruling communist party.

Author

Bhargavi Saikia

Bhargavi works as a Data Analyst at HealthLEADS, specialising in data cleaning, analysis and visualisation. With a keen eye for patterns and a penchant for clarity, Bhargavi brings data to life, bridging the gap between raw data and storytelling.
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