In recent days, the mainland epidemic has broken out again. In addition to Jilin, where the epidemic is the most serious, Shanghai also has a crisis of large-scale outbreaks.
Local cases in Shanghai continued to increase last week, although most of them were asymptomatic, but the numbers were huge.
According to a report from the National Health and Medical Commission, 50 cases were confirmed in Shanghai on Sunday (27th), and another 3,450 were asymptomatic.
Wu Fan, a member of the expert group of the Shanghai Leading Group for Epidemic Prevention and Control, and vice president of Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, pointed out that there is an outbreak risk and decisive measures must be taken.
On Sunday night, the Shanghai Epidemic Prevention and Control Office suddenly announced a two-stage lockdown from the next day.
Taking the Huangpu River as the boundary, Pudong first closed the city from 5:00 on the 28th of this month to 5:00 on April 1st; Puxi closed the city from 3:00 on the 1st to 3:00 on the 5th.
During the period, except for "guaranteing the supply" (guaranteeing the supply of daily necessities) companies and personnel, all people will stay at home, and the houses will be managed in a closed manner, only people and vehicles will not enter, and the national nucleic acid will be carried out in a block-based and grid-based manner. detection.
The epidemic in Shanghai is getting worse. On March 27, Shanghai reported 50 local confirmed cases and 3,450 asymptomatic cases.
The road to openness is still long
Shanghai's decision to close the city was not an easy decision.
In addition to the initial nationwide lockdown in 2020, the epidemic in the mainland has recurred many times in the past, and Shanghai has not taken measures such as lockdown and nationwide testing.
Until last Saturday (26th), Wu Fan still pointed out that Shanghai will not be closed, because "Shanghai is not only Shanghai for Shanghai people, but also carries an important function of China's economic and social development", calling on citizens to "have a big picture." ".
However, it was only one day after the remarks came to fruition that Shanghai changed its mind.
There are two very different strategies in front of Shanghai: the Shenzhen and Hong Kong models.
Shenzhen decisively chose to close the city at the beginning of the epidemic, and it took only one week (March 14 to 20) to control the epidemic. On Sunday, there were only 7 local cases in Shenzhen including asymptomatic cases.
In another case, Hong Kong has resolutely not closed the city since the early stage, and did not test the whole people. It is hoped that limited contact can be controlled to control the epidemic. However, as we all know, the prevention and control in Hong Kong can only be described as failure. The fifth wave of the epidemic is estimated to have exceeded one million. more than 7,000 lives have been lost.
The economy is important, but as Wu Fan said, Shanghai is not just "Shanghai for Shanghainese", and the epidemic prevention policy Shanghai adopts ultimately depends on reality.
In the past, Shanghai was not able to close the city because it could also control the epidemic. Now that the epidemic has a great risk of spreading, it can no longer be handled with the previous mentality.
Fortunately, Shanghai's epidemic prevention officials had the courage to defeat yesterday's self, and finally decided to close the city after balancing the wind inspection.
Recently, the mainland has begun to discuss the issue of opening up, but from the perspective of the prevention and control of this wave of epidemics, the road to opening up needs to be done step by step and cannot be rushed.
Although the death rate and severe disease rate of the new crown variant Omicron are low, its transmission ability is extremely strong, and it will still cause a considerable epidemic in the mainland with such a large population base.
Two-phase lockdown suits needs
Shanghai, as an international city and "carrying China's economy", is on a par with Hong Kong in terms of the difficulty of closing down the city, otherwise Shanghai would not have hoped that the city would not be closed until Saturday.
It took a lot of courage and decisiveness for the officials to change their minds and decide to make amends. At the same time, they made the biggest adjustments to the policy according to the special circumstances of Shanghai.
Shanghai's urban functions cannot be completely stopped, so there is a two-stage closure design, just like a dolphin's brain resting in shifts to achieve 24-hour uninterrupted activities.
However, the problems of dense population and detection of manpower are solved by dicing and grid partition processing.
On March 28, 2022, Shanghai, the bustling traffic on the bridge has disappeared.
On the evening of March 27, the Office of the Leading Group for the Prevention and Control of the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic in Shanghai announced that from 5:00 on March 28, Shanghai will implement nucleic acid inspections in batches with the Huangpu River as the boundary.
Even if we don't argue too much between the terms "dynamic clearing" and "coexisting with the virus", Shanghai's approach is to prove with actions that there is no "flattening" and try to make a difference between controlling the epidemic and keeping open Balance and assume the main responsibility of fighting the epidemic.
Shanghai's actions also reflect that Hong Kong is not without solutions, but our officials lack the sense of urgency to recognize the seriousness of the problem, the courage to make decisions, and the ability to design better policies.
What should be reflected on is why Hong Kong failed to seize the opportunity to make a decision in the early stage of the epidemic, and so far it can only be used as a negative teaching material.
The mainland and Hong Kong cannot stand alone and blame each other. It is better to fight the epidemic together. China or withdraw from the reset policy. Hong Kong is only a negative teaching material. The political consideration of the epidemic prevention policy is the social interest.