How Hong Kong and Shenzhen reduced COVID-19 without blocking – the portal for specialists in naturopathy and naturopathic medicine

Cultural factors in the measures and their compliance.

In Hong Kong and the neighboring province of Shenzhen, the coronavirus epidemic was successfully reduced without the need for a complete blockade. The researchers have now examined and evaluated the measures with which the provinces managed to successfully manage SARS-CoV-2 without a complete closure.

Hong Kong and Shenzhen, despite their proximity to the origin of the coronavirus pandemic, have surprisingly few COVID-19 illnesses and deaths, despite the fact that local health authorities have not ordered a complete closure. Two research teams have investigated how this was accomplished. Its results for Hong Kong were presented in the specialized magazine “Lancet Public Health” and those of Shenzhen in the specialized magazine “Lancet Infectious Diseases”.

Hong Kong is surely maneuvering through the crisis

Hong Kong had only 715 cases of COVID-19 and 4 deaths associated with SARS-CoV-2 as of the end of March 2020, according to the University of Hong Kong. If you consider that 7.5 million people live here in a small space and that there is a geographical proximity to the Wuhan outbreak, this result is impressive. How did this happen?

Results were achieved without a complete shutdown

As the research team at the University of Hong Kong demonstrates, successful reduction is based on early and consistent action and good cooperation from the population. The measures included that all people entering countries where COVID-19 cases were known had to go through the 14-day quarantine. Furthermore, all people with COVID-19 were isolated in hospitals.

In addition, the authorities intensively tracked all the contacts of the infected people. People who tested positive immediately had to leave their homes and cure the infection in a quarantine center, regardless of severity.

Other measures in Hong Kong

Health authorities asked the population to comply with regulations remotely and to wear face masks in public. These measures were consistently followed. Additionally, schools closed since the end of January and employees were sent to the central office if possible. The rest of public life, however, continued relatively normal under strict hygiene measures.

Success of the measures.

In this way, Hong Kong was able to keep the coronavirus reproductive number (R) low from the start. During March, R could be pushed from 1.5 to less than 1 without an exponential differential. School closings, according to the University of Hong Kong, resulted in a 33 percent reduction in child transmission. A lot in this group of 1.1 to 0.73.

The behavior of the population had a great impact.

The researchers attribute the great success of containment to the high willingness of the population to implement the recommendations and support the measures. According to surveys conducted as part of the study, 85 percent of respondents avoided crowded places and 99 percent wore face masks in public.

The flu was contained

The measures also had a major impact on the spread of the flu. The number of illnesses fell within the scope of the measures by 44 percent, so the flu season ended prematurely. The reproductive number of influenza therefore falls from 1.28 to 0.72.

Similar Results in Shenzhen

The success of this approach was also reflected in neighboring Shenzhen province, where similar steps were taken. Around 13 million people live in the province. Researchers from Guangdong Provincial University showed that the number of reproductions here could even be reduced to 0.4.

Six times higher risk of infection in homes

The follow-up of contacts and the subsequent quarantine of all those infected proved to be particularly effective. The research team found that the probability of transmission in a home is six times greater than in public. Temporary placement of infected people in quarantine facilities has proven to be an effective measure to reduce domestic transmission and break the chain of infection.

Early detection through contact tracking

Through contact tracking, many cases of illness could be discovered much earlier. Although an infected person took an average of 4.6 days to isolate after the onset of symptoms, it was only 2.7 days among the cases discovered by follow-up contact.

Study limitations.

While the overall package of measures taken there resulted in effective containment, it is unclear what partial success the individual measures achieved. And cultural factors certainly play a decisive role in success. For example, much less acceptance would be expected when isolating family members in quarantine facilities in Europe. (vb)

Important note:
This article contains general information only and should not be used for self-diagnosis or treatment. It cannot replace a visit to the doctor.