Fighting Covid-19: China, South Korea, Norway … what works elsewhere



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We could have also mentioned Taiwan, Vietnam or Japan, but the list of countries that have so far been able to control the Covid-19 outbreak wouldn’t have been much longer. Before the intervention of Prime Minister Jean Castex, who is holding a press conference on Thursday 12 November, fifteen days before the reconfirmation, to take stock of the French strategy in the face of the health crisis, zoom in on four countries that have known to adopt a series of effective pandemic measures in principle.

China, supported by its ultra-efficient industry

In Shanghai station on November 10th.  / REUTERS / Aly Song
In Shanghai station on November 10th. / REUTERS / Aly Song

Images of a giant maskless techno party in Wuhan shot around the world in August. The city where the first cases of Covid-19 were identified was celebrating in the summer and it seems, for the moment, like all of China, to get rid of the new coronavirus. Although the official figures are questionable, analysts agree that the virus no longer fills the hospitals of the Middle Empire. “The situation is now reversed,” laughs Quentin Pignard, who has been installed for years in Shanghai. “A month ago, on the train, my Chinese wife was asked where I was from. When the passengers learned that I was French, I saw the panic in their eyes! “

How did the Chinese authorities manage to stop the epidemic? “They were very responsive in applying the test, tracing, isolating the triptych,” responded Antoine Bondaz, a researcher at the Foundation for Strategic Research, a specialist in the region. “Beijing is now trying to make the world believe that its authoritarian political system is the only effective one. But China has mainly benefited from its immense industrial capacity to produce tests in large quantities, ”he analyzes.

Coronavirus experience in South Korea

In a park in Hanam on October 13 ./REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
In a park in Hanam on October 13 ./REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

Out of more than 51 million inhabitants, only 487 South Koreans have died of Covid-19, compared to almost a thousand times more in France. “I have tested almost all the Korean anti-Covid measures! », Anaëlle Péron, a French student in Seoul testifies. It must be said that in August she landed at Inchon airport … with a fever. She then “benefited” from a first PCR test and a night in a hotel before leaving for the airport where a “Covid taxi” took her to her mandatory fortnight. In his “goshiwon”, a sort of typical mini-studio, the rules of isolation were drastic: no going out, not even for shopping, everything had to be delivered. Another aspect of this very strict management: surveillance. The movements of residents can thus be spied on using new technologies and severely sanctioned offenders.

“Indeed, after the SARS crisis and even the seas (Editor’s note: previous coronaviruses causing epidemics), South Korea, a rule of law if it exists, had already prepared its legislative arsenal for these exceptional situations ”, stresses Antoine Bondaz. Rapid tests have also been available since January. The mask must be worn everywhere, always. And no more than twenty classes at the university.

Fighting Covid-19: China, South Korea, Norway ... what works elsewhere

In New Zealand, the accession of an entire country

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, November 6 in Wellington./AFP/Dave Lintott
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, November 6 in Wellington./AFP/Dave Lintott

In early August, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), has already congratulated New Zealand, presented as a “global model” for its response to the pandemic. Since then, this archipelago of 5 million inhabitants has continued to publish enviable results in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus: 25 deaths in 1988 cases.

Border closures since February 28 (even before the first case on its territory), national imprisonment of 26 days, then movement restrictions, request to trace virus carriers … At the end of March, Jacinda Ardern’s government is gaining momentum in the area. tracking, screening and quarantine. After eight weeks of home schooling, students can find their way back to school.

Another determining factor, “a high rate of public acceptance, in a country prone to earthquakes and in which the population and relief management systems are aware of the disasters”, report epidemiologists of the Lancet Public Health magazine. November.

Norway anticipated

In Nesodden, Norway, on April 20./ VIA REUTERS
In Nesodden, Norway, on April 20./ VIA REUTERS

Norway, with 285 deaths per 5.7 million inhabitants, has the advantage of a low population density which helps to limit social interactions, a well-known source of contamination. But that’s not the only reason for his control of the outbreak. From March 13, bars, restaurants, museums and tourist attractions are closed, just 16 days after the first case was announced!

Thanks to a population very respectful of the recommendations, the confinement could be based mainly on volunteering. Norway was even one of the first European countries to gradually reopen kindergartens and schools from 20 April. Although the outbreak remains under control, the government continues to take the lead and now recommends limiting its contacts to ten people per week.

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