The Development of China’s Crisis Prevention System in the New Era
By ABB（China）Co.，Ltd.
China as the second largest economy in the world，China accounts for about 16 percent of the global economy，contributing roughly 30 percent of global growth in 2018. At beginning of 2020，the Chinese government took decisive and resolute measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus（COVID-19）and treat infected patients，gained valuable time and experience for the world. From which，China was highly appreciated by the international community.
This paper provides an overview of current situation of China’s responses to the COVID-19 epidemic. It then discusses the key factors of its responding system，such as public health infrastructure，operation of emergency management mechanism，reserve of protective supplies，and resumption of production and operation. By combining international practices，case study and ABB’s practical business experience，this paper presents the suggestions for further developing the crisis prevention system of China in the new era.
1 Situation analysis
China is the world’s second largest economy. While responding to a series of major natural crises，such as geological disasters，floods，droughts，extreme weathers，oceanic disasters，forest and prairie fires etc.，China has demonstrated high efficiency and capability with the well-developed crises prevention system. China has also made very good control on preventing the known infectious diseases，such as plague and cholera etc.
Over the past decades，China has set up a mature system and accumulated rich experience on managing and controlling the major work safety and traffic accidents，which helped reduce the number of major accidents significantly. This can be seen from investigation reports of extremely major accidents released by Ministry of Emergency Management of the People’s Republic of China（MEM）in recent years.
Figure 1 The number of extremely major accidents in 2012-2019
Source：https：//www.mem.gov.cn/gk/sgcc/tbzdsgdcbg/.
In the course of responding to the outbreak of COVID-19，China’s crisis prevention system faced many challenges，such as early warning of epidemic，allocation of medical facilities，deployment of medical supplies，and production organization. After activating the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council，China effectively controlled the spread of epidemic by taking various emergent and decisive measures including rapidly building Huoshenshan Hospital，Leishenshan Hospital and shelter hospitals，sending emergency medical assistance teams to Hubei province，and guiding the manufacturers of epidemic prevention materials to accelerate production resumption to ease the pressure of shortage in protective supplies.
The experiences of tacking the epidemic challenges presented that there is much potential for China’s crisis prevention system to further improve，especially in the areas of public health infrastructure，operation of emergency management mechanism，reserve of protective supplies，and organizing work and production resumption.
2 Improve public health infrastructures
When the COVID-19 epidemic broke out in Wuhan，there were a total of 600 beds available in Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital. As a result，many confirmed cases of COVID-19 were not treated in time，many suspected cases were not in effective quarantine. Coupling with insufficient public awareness of the virus’s strong infectivity，the epidemic quickly erupted. It highlighted the shortage of China’s public health infrastructures.
The medical institutions in Wuhan and Hubei Province faced with huge pressure due to the shortage of medical testing facilities，the medical staff，and the medical and protective materials. In order to control the virus spread，Wuhan took the decisive measures on changing many hospitals into designated ones，building the Huoshenshan Hospital and the Leishenshan Hospital at top speed，transforming many convention and exhibition centers and sports venues into shelter hospitals，and using hotels to put suspected cases in quarantine. In addition，all provinces，autonomous regions，and municipalities sent emergency medical assistance teams to help Wuhan and Hubei province. With these resolute efforts，the patients in critical condition were treated in regular hospitals，while the patients with mild symptoms were treated in the shelter hospitals，and the suspected cases and close contacts were sent in centralized quarantine facilities with no one unattended. As of February 24，48 designated hospitals in Wuhan had a combined capacity of 23，532 beds，including 19，275 ones in use and 4311 ones[1] available-the epidemic was preliminarily contained. As of March 10，all the 14 shelter hospitals in Wuhan wrapped up their operation，giving us the truly dawn in sight.[2]
In the era of frequent mobility，various epidemics including MERS，Ebola virus and dengue may occur in China at any time，therefore it is highly necessary to increase investments to construct regular epidemic prevention facilities. It is suggested to set up standing and regular isolation facilities，including ready-to-use isolation rooms attended by medical professionals responsible for effective operation of all protective facilities in all hospitals，airports and stations. In this way，once an infectious disease patient is observed，immediate actions including isolation，transfer and treatment can be taken professionally.
Over 40+ years of development after the reform and opening up，China has stepped into a new era featuring high-quality development，and be working on meeting people’s increasing demand for a better life. But China’s government investments for education，health and culture are relatively lower than that for the environmental protection and transportation infrastructures. In 2018，the fiscal expenditure in China’s healthcare registered CNY 1.6 trillion，accounting for only about 1.7% of the GDP，a level lower than some other countries[3]. This is not compatible with the country’s position as the world’s second largest economy.
We have noticed that the work report of every local government defines a specific task of investments in healthcare，for example，Beijing government has put forward that “Beijing will formulate a three-year action plan to build up capacity of the public health system to improve the capability of handling infectious diseases and public health emergencies” in its Report on the Work of the Beijing Municipal People’s Government 2020.[4]
Since the COVID-19 outbreak，the deployment of new technologies like artificial intelligence（AI）has been playing an important role in fighting against the epidemic. According to incomplete statistics，the AI-driven epidemic prevention approach has been applied in epidemic tracking and statistics，personnel health detection，material supply platform，diagnosis assistance and various functional robots etc. In some hospitals of Wuhan，various robots were deployed for disinfection，temperature measurement，patrol，and food and medicine delivery，which partly replaced manpower，improved work efficiency and reduced the risk of cross infection. The Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan deployed the most AI products during the battle against the virus，including pulmonary imaging assisted diagnosis，rational drug use systems，robots and automated supermarkets.[5]
In the days to come，ABB’s collaborative robots like YuMi® can be adapted to assist medical and laboratory staff with laboratory and logistics tasks in hospitals. It has the potential to undertake a wide range of repetitive and time-consuming activities，including preparation of medicines，loading and unloading centrifuges，pipetting and handling liquids and picking up and sorting test tubes. It will allow medical experts and researchers to focus on more valuable work and ultimately treat more patients.
The healthcare sector is undergoing significant transformation as the diagnosis and treatment of disease advances，while coping with an aging population，increasing costs and a growing worldwide shortage of medical staff. To provide more efficient diagnosis and health services，many hospitals are working to deploy the latest automated，digital and intelligent technologies for transformation and upgrading.
Therefore，it would be very important to increase investments in the public health field，including the increase of the number of medical staff and their compensation package，increase of public health facilities with automated，digital and intelligent technologies for intelligent hospitals. This will further improve the service level of public health institutes and boost the country’s overall capability of responding to public health emergencies.
3 Operation of emergency management mechanism
The effective operation of emergency management mechanism is critical to the epidemic control. While fighting against the sudden outbreak of the epidemic，the emergency management mechanism must ensure the supply of all necessary materials for the frontline medical staffs since they are similar with the soldiers at this stage.
When the COVID-19 occurred，all provinces，autonomous regions，and municipalities rapidly triggered their emergency response mechanism，and the city of Wuhan was locked down. However，for a long time after the lockdown，many logistical support including transportation，accommodation and food for medical professionals etc. were undertaken by the volunteers，and the allocation of protective supplies was in messy situation. In the contrast，the construction of Huoshenshan Hospital went through successfully with high efficient and orderly management.
On January 23，2020，the Wuhan government decided to build the Huoshenshan Hospital for centralized treatment of critical confirmed cases by following the practice of Beijing Xiaotangshan Hospital within 10 days. With a total floor space of 33，900 square meters，the hospital adopts modular and fishbone-shaped layout. It has such strictly separated functional divisions as medical treatment section，ward section，site cleaning section，partially contaminated section and contaminated section. Moreover，the rainwater，waste water and chlorine can only be discharged after multilevel purification，and the wards under negative pressure must go through high-standard disinfection. The medical wastes must be incinerated in situ in a centralized way and disposed in a harmless manner.[6]
A three-level command system comprising Wuhan Urban and Rural Construction Bureau，China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co.，Ltd. and participating subcontractors，was established for the construction of Huoshenshan Hospital. Specifically，the China Construction Third Engineering Bureau as the general contractor[7]，was responsible for the roadmap development，overall planning，organizing and coordinating，connection and alternating of working procedures and technological processes，providing services and construction schedules for all participating organizations to ensure each party to bring their expertise into full play，and maintain aligned construction pace[8]. Tens of thousands of workers from more than ten organizations experienced a good collabration during the construction.
Thanks to the onsite safety and epidemic prevention management team，no safety accident or COVID-19 infection was reported during the project. The team comprised two subgroups for 24/7 continuous safety supervision over construction site. There were five fixed infrared thermometers in the office area，the living quarters for workers，and three mobile temperature checking stations. The team has 8 supervisors assigned for site inspection and temperature measurement with the portable thermodetector to ensure four times of body temperature checking for every people on site.[9]
Due to extremely short construction time for the Huoshenshan Hospital project，there were many challenges for the participating organizations including ensuring high quantity of material supply，safety of numerous site workers and smooth connection of various processes etc. Given this，only professional，well-considered and efficient project management can coordinate for a close collaboration of all participating parties in the construction processes，so that the material supply，site construction process and time nodes can be seamlessly connected，while ensuring the safety protection. Then the hospital can be completed and delivered for operation on February 2. This could be an impossible task if any part went wrong or lagged behind. The emergency management system may draw from such an efficient project management approach，to further improve the crisis prevention capacity in the future.
4 Reserve of protective supplies
The reserve and allocation of protective supplies are very critical role for dealing with both natural disasters and public health emergencies. Since the SARS outbreak in 2003，China has improved its emergency management system for public health emergencies，including the reserve system for emergent supplies. The personal protective equipment（PPE）for medical professionals，including protective garments，safety goggles and surgical masks，are included in the list of protective supplies. When an epidemic breaks out，these PPE serve as an important line of defense for medical professionals to combat the epidemic.
However，at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak，due to the rapid virus spread，early warning deviation was biased，the number of infected people increased dramatically，all kinds of protective materials quickly fell short to meet the demand of frontline medical professionals. It caused that the medical staffs had to directly seek help from the community. Immediately，all walks of life made a rapid response and mobilized global resources available to provide emergency supports. ABB immediately decided a donation of 1 million yuan to support the needs of frontline medical staff. We have since used our global supply chain to secure and deliver more than 16，000 N95 masks to hospitals in Wuhan，Xiamen，Chongqing，Shanghai and Beijing.
After the implementation the national level of Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism，the production capacity of protective supplies was quickly recovered and new production facilities were put on stream，the shortage of such protective supplies as masks and protective garments were gradually alleviated. However，what needs to be rethought is that as the world’s largest mask producer and exporter with annual production accounting for 50% of the world’s total，China could not sufficiently provide masks for the frontline medical professionals in quite a period since the epidemic outbreak，which highlights the gap in reserve of emergency supplies of China’s emergency management system.
As stated in Comprehensively Boosting China’s Prevention and Control Capability in Accordance with Laws & Regulations and Continuously Improving China’s Public Health Emergency Management System，an article of President Xi published in QiuShi magazine，China should take the security of emergency supplies as one important task of developing the national emergency management system. Based on the top level attention，it is time to further improve the reserve system and mechanism of protective supplies，optimize the reserve of critical emergency supplies and guarantee production capacity for public health emergencies，thus enhancing China’s crisis prevention capability.
5 Resuming work and production safely and orderly
Work and production resumption is conductive to providing reliable supplies for the epidemic prevention and control，and ensuring social and economic stability. The safe and orderly resumption of work requires enterprises to implement epidemic prevention and control measures while ensuring production. At the beginning of returning to work，many professional organizations in the country have made protection guidelines for transportation，home，workplace etc. Enterprises should carry out professional management on employee safety protection to ensure safe return to work and prevent rebound of the epidemic.
（1）ABB’s work resumption experience
The health and safety of its employees is a top priority of ABB. At the initial stage of the COVID-19 outbreak，ABB China timely started the preparation for epidemic prevention，set up a team for virus prevention and control，and closely monitored the safety and health situation of ABB employees in the affected areas and across China. On February 10，ABB started to resume work and production，which was reported by CCTV news as a good example.
During the Spring Festival holiday，the management team of ABB China and relevant functions continuously tracked the policy updates released by public health authorities，worked out detailed guidance for employees’ health and safety，and communicated with employees internally via SMS，email and WeChat groups to inform COVID-19 prevention & control measures.
In line with the government requirements，ABB China decided to cancel or postpone business travel unless it’s business critical；cancel or postpone the recent large-scale internal and external meetings and events，recommended employees to use Skype or teleconference options. During the holiday，the company also recommended the employees to follow the local community and government’s preventative measures and safeguard the health of themselves and their family.
ABB provided all necessary personnel protection equipment（PPE）to employees by the support of global resources，and arranged trainings for protection，including the Guide for Work Resumption after the Spring Festival Holiday-Health Protection in Travel to Work Site Under COVID-19 Outbreak，the Safety Protection at Office Under COVID-19 Outbreak，and the Guide for Work Resumption after the Spring Festival Holiday-Psychological Adjustment During National Fight Against Epidemic.
After resuming normal operation，HSE precaution measures were properly implemented and shuttle buses and catering services ran smoothly across many ABB companies and factories in China. In addition，the employees returning to work also submit their health information every day，wear masks in a standard way，keep proper safety distance. ABB team have been making concerted efforts to ensure safety.
At the initial stage of work resumption，people movements were restricted to meet the epidemic prevention & control requirements across China. The raw material supply and transportation didn’t work in a normal way. Moreover，some key suppliers had difficulties in production resumption. Fortunately，the local government of many cities where ABB businesses are located，for example，Beijing，Shanghai and Xiamen，provided strong support in coordinating with government approval and logistics system via the mechanism of Yangtze River Delta，the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region etc.，to ensure timely delivery and business continuity. In addition，Chinese government has released many supportive policies to minimize the epidemic impacts on business sectors.
After the work resumption，in many cities，including the ones where no confirmed cases were reported，many people were not able to return to their work sites，or they were only allowed to return to their rented apartments after a 14 days quarantine in some other places. It caused much inconvenience and impacts the production recovery. Therefore，we would like to recommended that the resumption of production should be taken as an important topic in the future crisis prevention system. Moreover，an overall consideration in terms of safety and orderly production resumption，transportation and logistics across the whole country，will help reduce the epidemic’s impact on economic development.
（2）Working with customers and partners to fight against COVID-19
In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak，ABB timely resumed its online service and provided remote support to ensure the impact for the customers is as minimal as possible. Meanwhile，ABB team has contributed to many virus-prevention projects by working closely with the customers and partners and leveraging its advantages in technology，products，services and supply chain，to ensure sustainable economic development.
The projects included the construction of hospital in Guizhou. To timely and effectively prevent the virus spread，Guiyang decided to accelerate the upgrading of Dashuigou inpatient area and expanded it to a Guiyang-version “Xiaotangshan” Hospital. According to the plan，an emergency isolation section comprising 404 beds would be constructed in the location of the previous Dashuigou inpatient building. ABB team raced against time to provide dedicated isolation transformer for the ICU for critical cases，as well as the products like MCCBs，MCBs，RCCBs，disconnectors，contactors，and ATSs. In the face of restricted logistics and courier services，ABB engineers drove from Chongqing to Guiyang to deliver the necessary products，which strongly supported this project.
To ensure safe and reliable operation of the infrastructures，ABB rapidly activated its emergency mechanism to provide solutions for system capacity expansion of relevant hospitals，offered 7*24 all-round service，to ensure the frontline production and medical services，for example，successful supported the capacity expansion of Shanghai Jinshan Hospital，with timely delivery of VD4 vacuum circuit breakers.
The fully automated production lines deployed by our customers enjoyed great advantages in safe work resumption. The robots helped not only reduce labor costs and worker density in workshops，but also recover production more efficiently. For instance，ABB helped Hella Shanghai Electronics Co.，Ltd. build an advanced production line for remote car door opener with 11 ABB robots in 2018. Thanks to its high automation level and zero requirements for direct operators，the production line didn’t fully shut down even during the Spring Festival Holiday，and quickly resumed normal production after the holiday. This made a sharp contrast to the companies who suffered when their employees being not able to return to work due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The deployment of robots and automation technologies，including remote services，helps ensure continuous operation of enterprises in the context of the epidemic outbreak.
6 Suggestions
The decisive measures China has taken to combat the epidemic have fully demonstrated the country’s strength and resolve to take on responsibilities. It is highly appreciated by the international communities. During last period，the findings and learnings would be very meaningful references for the development of national crisis prevention system. Based on the observations of China’s response to the epidemic，we would like to provide following recommendations：
·In 2020，China will start to work out the 14th Five-Year Plan. It would be a good opportunity for the country to plan increasing investments in public health infrastructures to further improve the capability of responding to major public health emergencies.
·The society would be benefited from further improving the emergency management mechanism including the system of ensuring the materials supply. The mechanism operation may refer to the project management model to increase its efficiency.
·As an important part of the national emergency management system，the reserve system for critical emergency supplies production capacity shall be optimized.
·The public shall have the opportunity to get regular trainings on how to react for preventing the epidemic，in accordance to the experiences of the training in responding to natural disasters like earthquake and fire，especially after the experience of fighting against COVID-19.
·The professional safety protection shall be an important part of the daily work of the enterprises and public institutions in ensuring safe operation and personal safety. This will help people to take efficient response to emergent natural disasters and public health incidents，and support safe production resumption afterwards.
·The adoption of more automated，digital and intelligent technologies including robots in industrial and medical fields shall be encouraged to boost the overall crisis prevention capability of the country.
7 Closing remarks
ABB extends sincere thanks to China for the extraordinary efforts to contain the spread of the virus. We would like to express our admiration for the people on the front line.
China is ABB’s second-largest market and we have been growing together with China since the reform and opening up. To support China’s growth and economic development，ABB has made significant investments over the years，most recently in an innovation and manufacturing hub in Xiamen and in the world’s most advanced robotics factory，currently under construction in Shanghai. We will continue to invest in China to drive further growth.
We are absolutely confident in the future of the Chinese economy，which is strong enough to withstand the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. We will stand firm alongside our Chinese colleagues，customers，partners and all Chinese people to defeat this virus.
[1] https：//baijiahao.baidu.com/s？id=1659562953722427344&wfr=spider&for=pc（Takefoto.cn. 2020-02-26. Latest data：Bed uses in 48 designated hospitals of Wuhan at a glance：Jinyintan Hospital has 115 beds available）.
[2] http：//www.xinhuanet.com/comments/2020-03/11/c_1125693669.htm（www.xinhuanet.com 2020-02-11. Shelter hospitals deliver hope with its opening and wrapping up）.
[3] https：//stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx？DatasetCode=HEALTH_STAT#http：//data.stats.gov.cn/easyquery.htm？cn=C01.
[4] http：//www.beijing.gov.cn/gongkai/jihua/zfgzbg/t1613862.htm（The Report on Work of Beijing Municipal People’s Government 2020：II Major Tasks（7）Making steady progress in ensuring people’s access to childcare，education，employment，medical services，elderly care，housing，and social assistance，as well as ensuring convenience，livability，diversity，fairness and safety to allow more sense of gain，happiness and security for people）.
[5] https：//new.qq.com/omn/20200228/20200228A0TUQG00.html（QQ.com. AI-driven epidemic prevention：Robots are most popular in Wuhan hospitals and Huoshenshan Hospital deploys the most AI products）.
[6] http：//www.naa.gov.cn/daj/c100251/202002/eaebd1c977b84ddb9046167c2e4ac282.shtml（National Archives Administration of China 2020-02-27：Construction archives contributes to rapid completion of Huoshenshan Hospital）.
[7] https：//www.sohu.com/a/370939296_120094713（2020-02-06：China speed in building Huoshenshan Hospital and Leishenshan Hospital！）.
[8] http：//finance.people.com.cn/n1/2020/0224/c1004-31600744.html（people.cn 2020-02-24：A look at the “China Power” under rapid construction of Huoshenshan Hospital and Leishenshan Hospital）.
[9] https：//baijiahao.baidu.com/s？id=1657440519510800159&wfr=spider&for=pc（Red Star News 2020-02-02. Live：How difficult is the construction and delivery of Huoshenshan Hospital？）.