KE SHEN WRITES — Just last month, two new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Beijing. Luckily, both patients were wearing masks while they went to the hospital and took tests. Worryingly, China’s Center for Disease Control has already conducted coronavirus tests for people who work at the Haidian district seafood market and had found 46 positives.
Although there is no clear evidence showing the source of infection, all 46 of these new cases were found near a seafood market. Some cases originated from a chopping board that served salmon there. However, experts have confirmed that there is no link between salmon and coronavirus directly.
As a result, the Beijing government has already initiated wartime mechanisms and established a field command center to deal with further threats of coronavirus.
China now has over 85,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus which is not enough to qualify China for a place in the global top 10 infected countries ranking. Clearly, social distancing for a short period of time and lock-down seem the only rational thing to do. The Chinese government has put its best effort into fighting coronavirus and is willing to sacrifice the economy to save people’s lives.
But if the second wave of coronavirus comes, especially in the Beijing Metropolitan area, the negative impacts will be substantial. Fortunately, people are still wearing masks and taking necessary precautions on a micro level.
When 46 new cases were discovered in April, people panicked on social media. This became the trending topic on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. Other countries have over 50,000 new cases, so obviously, the way people and governments treat the virus has great consequences, both positive and negative. Now it seems only rational for the entire global community to treat this virus seriously. Survive, because herd immunity does not work. Yet.