Zhang Boli: The situation of COVID-19 epidemic in Fujian is still serious, but I believe it can be controlled in about a month

By September 21, 44 new cases had been confirmed in Fujian, and a total of 1,213 cases had been diagnosed.

In an interview with Xinjing News Shell Finance, Zhang Boli, the recipient of the national honorary title of “People’s Hero”, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and honorary president of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that the epidemic in Fujian is still on the rise, but he believes that the epidemic in Fujian can be controlled within a month or so.

Zhang Boli said that since the emergence of confirmed cases on September 10, the number of confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia in Fujian Province has continued to grow for many days, distributed in Putian, Xiamen and Quanzhou. According to the current situation, this outbreak in Fujian has the following characteristics.

First, the outbreak was triggered by the importation of Delta variant strains. Delta variant strains have high viral load, high transmission capacity, fast transmission, and long turnaround time. Second, the latent transmission period is long, and the Putian outbreak was found before or has been spread in schools for 10 days.Third, the point of transmission is special, and schools have become the point of transmission, which is very different from previous outbreaks, with more children infected, increasing the difficulty of tracing the source and prevention and control. Fourth, compared with the outbreaks in Yangzhou and Nanjing, the current round of outbreaks currently has more confirmed cases of mild and asymptomatic infections, and the overall age of the infected is young.

Zhang Boli pointed out that although the epidemic has not yet spread outside the province on a large scale, and is currently being stepped up to screen for traceability, there is still a risk of it continuing to spread to other areas in the short term, so it should not be taken lightly. The situation is more complicated than in Yangzhou and Nanjing, Fujian, where the infected group is still on the rise and the chain of transmission has not been fully identified and blocked, and there is still the risk of spreading to other areas in the short term.
“Prevention and control has reached the most critical stage. But on the basis of the previous experience of prevention and control in many places in China, adhere to scientific and effective traceability, focus on the joint treatment of Chinese and Western medicine, efforts to improve the cure rate and prevent nosocomial infection, I believe that the epidemic in Fujian can be controlled in about a month.” Zhang Boli said.

Source：Beijing News