A Different Mindset
The Magic Kingdom in Shanghai is a wonderful place where kids can enjoy the fantasy of a world that has little connection to the day-to-day reality we, as adults, experience. On Sunday however, as the evening fireworks sparkled over Sleeping Beauty’s Castle park crowds received a Weibo (SINA) message from Disney management saying the park was closed and rides had stopped, new guests could enter the park and the ~34,000 guests who were within the park confines, could not leave and must be tested. There was no panic, according to many, and after a few words continued to watch the fireworks. At the exits were tables with PPE-suited workers that began working through the lines that were longer than those on any of the popular rides earlier in the day while the Disney staff handed out power packs so folks could charge their phones and stay in contact with those outside of the park. Later that night 200 busses took park goers home for two days of isolation.
This unusual circumstance was prompted by the discovery of a single Shanghai visitor that tested positive, with questions as to whether she had actually visited Disneyland itself, but the park indicated that that the testing and subsequent three day closure was to “cooperate with the pandemic investigation in other provinces and cities.” On the next day China (population 1.447b) reported 54 new COVID-19 Delta variant cases, totaling ~500 cases across the country, concentrated in Heilongjiang, a province in Northeast China that borders Russia and Inner Mongolia. Officials in the province have responded quickly with lockdowns, travel restrictions, and mass testing, while in other cities officials have stopped all traffic by turning all stoplights red, until the public protested, and severe restrictions in other cities have caused residents to leave over the last year.
While the public’s patience with the government’s strict COVID-19 rules, there seems to be an understanding that the only way China is going to maintain control over the COVID-19 virus is to enact such intrusive measures when even a single case is identified. Given China’s very low rate of infection and death, it seems to be working, at least as far as the data can be trusted. There are few countries where such a strategy is workable, especially when much of the rest of the world is trying to reopen despite the continued spread of the virus, but while the authoritarian government in China rules with an iron hand, it seems that much of the population understands that even a small breakout must be dealt with swiftly or will spread in such densely populated cities. With over 74% of the Chinese population vaccinated the numbers prove out.
This unusual circumstance was prompted by the discovery of a single Shanghai visitor that tested positive, with questions as to whether she had actually visited Disneyland itself, but the park indicated that that the testing and subsequent three day closure was to “cooperate with the pandemic investigation in other provinces and cities.” On the next day China (population 1.447b) reported 54 new COVID-19 Delta variant cases, totaling ~500 cases across the country, concentrated in Heilongjiang, a province in Northeast China that borders Russia and Inner Mongolia. Officials in the province have responded quickly with lockdowns, travel restrictions, and mass testing, while in other cities officials have stopped all traffic by turning all stoplights red, until the public protested, and severe restrictions in other cities have caused residents to leave over the last year.
While the public’s patience with the government’s strict COVID-19 rules, there seems to be an understanding that the only way China is going to maintain control over the COVID-19 virus is to enact such intrusive measures when even a single case is identified. Given China’s very low rate of infection and death, it seems to be working, at least as far as the data can be trusted. There are few countries where such a strategy is workable, especially when much of the rest of the world is trying to reopen despite the continued spread of the virus, but while the authoritarian government in China rules with an iron hand, it seems that much of the population understands that even a small breakout must be dealt with swiftly or will spread in such densely populated cities. With over 74% of the Chinese population vaccinated the numbers prove out.
Daily New Confirmed COVID-19 Cases - Source: See Below
Cumulative Confirmed COVID-19 Cases - Source: See Below
Daily New Confirmed COVID-19 Deaths- Source: See Below
Cumulative Confirmed COVID-19 Deaths- Source: See Below
Daily COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Administered Per 100 People - Source: See Below
Share of Population Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 - Source: See Below
Source: Hannah Ritchie, Edouard Mathieu, Lucas Rodés-Guirao, Cameron Appel, Charlie Giattino, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, Joe Hasell, Bobbie Macdonald, Diana Beltekian and Max Roser (2020) - "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)". Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus' [Online Resource]
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