Moment of truth: Xi leads war against COVID-19
People's war with Chinese characteristics
Under Xi's command, a central leading group on the epidemic response headed by Premier Li Keqiang was established on Jan 25. Two days later, Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan was sent to oversee the work on the ground in Hubei and has been stationed there ever since. In February, Party chiefs of Hubei and Wuhan were replaced in light of the serious problems exposed in the initial response.
But in essence, what Xi commands is a people's war against the epidemic. By and large, it is a war waged by the people and for the people, reflecting the core value of the 90-million-member CPC.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a leading US scholar on China and chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, said China's mobilization is unprecedented in global health history.
Xi ordered the use of the entire country's resources to pool strength into tackling the issue, which is an advantage of China's socialist system.
About 42,600 medics were dispatched to Hubei from across the country. Academicians, leading experts on respiratory illnesses and infectious diseases, and one-tenth of the country's intensive care specialists were all called in to the epicenter, according to the National Health Commission.
In Wuhan, 86 hospitals were designated to treat COVID-19 patients, two new hospitals were built from scratch in just two weeks, and 16 exhibition halls and sports venues were converted into makeshift hospitals, opening up 60,000 beds for COVID-19 patients in just a month.
Outside the hard-hit zone, the manufacturing of medical supplies was cranked up and "green passages" were opened to ensure the goods were delivered on time.
In a short time, everything from surgical masks to advanced life support systems streamed to the front line, including at least 67 sets of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines and 17,000 ventilators, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in early March.
Recounting his experience of leading WHO experts for a nine-day joint mission investigating COVID-19 in China, Canadian epidemiologist Bruce Aylward commended the readiness of Chinese medical institutions.
"If I had COVID-19, I'd want to be treated in China," he said. "They know and they care about keeping people alive, and they do it successfully."
According to the China-WHO joint mission, the case fatality rate of COVID-19 patients was estimated between 3 to 4 percent in China and only 0.7 percent in places outside Wuhan.
Universities, research institutes and businesses are working together to improve diagnostics, vaccines and medicines. The latest rapid testing kit can show results in 15 minutes by examining a single drop of blood. And the government made it clear: once confirmed, patients should not be worried about expenses; treatment is free.
Around the country, targeted prevention and control measures were taken to stem the outbreak. In some cities, grid management and neighborhood watches were initiated to detect and isolate suspected cases and their close contacts as soon as possible.
In a huge country with a population of 1.4 billion, people acted orderly; they heeded the government's advice and locked themselves at home for weeks in a row.
The China-WHO join mission said this truly "all-of-government and all-of-society" approach has averted or at least delayed hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 cases in the country.
Under Xi's command, a constant theme of this war has been "people first."
He has stressed putting people's life and health as the top priority and placing the people's interests above everything else.
On Tuesday, Xi said all prevention and control measures have been taken by the CPC Central Committee with the primary focus on preventing more people from being infected and saving more patients' lives.
