As the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak has shown, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) or public health measures may decrease or effectively stop the transmission of COVID-19 even without vaccines. Although the effectiveness of a single intervention strategy can be limited, multiple interventions together may generate substantial impacts on containing the spread of the virus. Figure 6 depicts the timeline for a series of policies enacted at the national, provincial, and city levels in China since January 19. After the official confirmation of human-to-human transmission by the Chinese authorities on January 20, China has adopted a variety of NPIs to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. At the national level, COVID-19 was classified as a statutory class B infectious disease on January 20, and prevention and control measures for class A infectious diseases have been taken. Government agencies across the country were mobilized. The Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council was established on January 20, and the Central Leadership Group for Epidemic Response was established on January 25. On January 23, National Healthcare Security Administration announced that expenses related to COVID-19 treatments would be covered by the medical insurance and the government if necessary, in order that all COVID-19 cases could be hospitalized19. At the provincial level, 30 provinces declared level I responses to major public health emergencies from January 23 to 25, and all provinces had declared level I responses by January 2920. Level I responses in China are designed for the highest state of emergencies. Measures taken include enhanced isolation and contact tracing of cases, suspension of public transport, cancelling public events, closing schools and entertainment venues, and establishment of health checkpoints (Tian et al. 2020). These policies together represent population-wide social distancing and case isolation (Ferguson et al. 2020).
Fig. 6 Timeline of China’s public health policies in curtailing the spread of COVID-19