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| Comparison item | China | The United States |
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| Place of the first occurrence | Wuhan (Hubei, China) | Washington State |
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| Prevention and control measures at the initial stage | The first stage, from 2019.12.10 to 2020.1.17 | The first stage, from 2020.1.22 to 2020.2.10 |
| (i) In late December 2019, Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine received several cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology. On December 29, Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention began an epidemiological investigation | (i) On January 22, the day before the lockdown of Wuhan, China, US President Donald Trump declared: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine” |
| (ii) On December 31, the National Health Commission (NHC) sent a working group and an expert group to Wuhan to guide the epidemic handling and conduct on-site investigations | (ii) On January 25, Trump praised China for its very hard work to contain the novel coronavirus |
| (iii) On January 1, 2020, the NHC set up the leading group on the disease response. On January 3 and 4, the NHC and the Health Commission of Hubei Provincial formulated nine documents, including Diagnosis and Treatment Protocol for Viral Pneumonia of Unknown Cause (for Trial Implementation) and produced Treatment Manual for Viral Pneumonia of Unknown Cause, which were issued to all medical and health institutions in Wuhan [5] | (iii) On January 30, Trump declared to the American public: “We only have five people. We pretty much shut it down coming in from China” |
(iv) On January 7, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and issued instructions on the prevention and control of a possible epidemic of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan. On January 8, the second group of experts from the NHC went to Wuhan
(v) On January 13, the NHC convened a meeting to deploy and guide Wuhan to further strengthen social management, strengthen the temperature monitoring of personnel at ports and stations, and reduce crowd gatherings | (iv) On January 31, the United States banned the entry of any foreign citizen who had been to China in the past 14 days |
| (vi) On January 15, the NHC released the first versions of the Diagnosis and Treatment Protocol for Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia and Protocol on Prevention and Control of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia | (v) On February 7, the heads of China and the United States conversed. Trump praised China for strict prevention and control |
| (vii) On January 17, the NHC sent seven inspection teams to guide local epidemic prevention and control | (vii) On February 10, Trump said that the virus would disappear after hotter weather in April |
| The second stage, from 2020.1.18 to 2020.1.23 | The second stage, from 2020.2.11 to 2020.2.26 |
| (i) On January 18, the NHC sent a high-level expert group headed by Academician Zhong Nanshan to Wuhan to inspect the local epidemic prevention and control | (i) On February 11, the heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of China and the United States conducted technical exchanges |
| (ii) On January 20, President Xi Jinping gave important instructions on fighting the novel coronavirus, emphasizing the need to resolutely stem the spread of the virus and enhance international cooperation. On the same day, Premier Li Keqiang presided over the executive meeting of the State Council and invited Zhong Nanshan and Li Lanjuan to attend | (ii) From February 16 to 24, the WHO-China Joint Mission on COVID-19, including two American experts, visited China |
| (iii) In the early morning of January 23, Wuhan City Novel Coronavirus Prevention and Control Command Center issued the No. 1 public notice declaring temporary closure of the city’s outbound routes at its airports and railway stations at 10 o'clock. Wuhan announced the lockdown of the city | (iii) On February 24, Trump declared: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA” |
| The third stage, from 2020.1.24 to 2020.2.1 | The third stage, from 2020.2.27 to 2020.3.11 |
| (i) After the city was on lockdown, Wuhan gradually established a traffic control and quarantine system to curb population flow | (i) On February 27, the White House issued an order prohibiting government medical and health experts from publicly discussing the epidemic |
| (ii) On February 29, the first death case occurred in the United States |
| (iii) On March 2, Trump asked pharmaceutical companies to develop a vaccine within a few months but was refused |
| (iv) On March 9, Trump used the death toll of influenza to tell Americans that the epidemic was not terrible |
| The fourth stage, from 2020.2.2 to 2020.2.6 | The fourth stage, from 2020.3.12 to 2020.3.23 |
| (i) Community prevention and control in Wuhan have been strengthened, and the community public health management model of “leave no household, no one behind” has been proposed. At the same time, the Huoshenshan Hospital, Leishenshan Hospital, and the makeshift hospital have completed the delivery and put it into use. Medical rescue teams from 20 provincial large-scale tertiary general hospitals rushed to help, further improving the prevention, control, and medical level of Wuhan | (i) On March 13, Trump declared a state of emergency in the country |
| (ii) A total of 1992 cases have been confirmed in the United States |
| (iii) On March 14, the US House of Representatives passed a plan that includes free COVID-19 testing |
| (iv) On March 19, the cumulative number of confirmed diagnoses in the United States exceeded 10,000 |
| (v) On March 23, 46,332 people were diagnosed in the United States |
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| Peak cases | The peak period occurred in June 2020, with a total of 83,000 confirmed cases and more than 4,000 deaths | As of February 8, 2021, the cumulative number of confirmed diagnoses exceeded 26 million and the death toll exceeded 450,000 |
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