Editor’s Note: CGTN reporter Han Peng was stationed in the United States at the beginning of 2019 and returned to China in December. In this editorial, he shares his views as he compares similarities and differences in COVID-19 and the government response in both countries.

COVID-19 has impacted both countries again in 2022. Both China and the U.S. have relaxed their COVID-19 prevention and control measures. But while the U.S. relaxed its mandates early, relying on herd immunity to take hold, China waited and didn't lift restrictions until it was clear that the now dominant Omicron variant was less lethal. The hope is to avoid the mass numbers of deaths that other countries have experienced.

With the recent lifting of measures in China, the number of infections will rise, and China will face the same challenges that other nations have seen. Here's what I've seen in both countries that have been similar:

As the number of infections increase, people are staying home. Right now in China, the streets of major cities are deserted, not unlike the streets of New York and Washington D.C. in 2020.

China is bracing for impacts to medicine and medical supplies just as supply chains in many countries were impacted by COVID spikes with the illness hitting the delivery sector hard, preventing many from working and causing holdups in the chain.

Those who can't go to work as they have before must deal with income shortages. On a micro level, many worry about making ends meet. On a macro level, national economies will face years of recovery. In 2020, the collective gross domestic product of the world fell by 3.4 percent due to the pandemic, according to the U.S. OECD.

But here is how China and the U.S. differ:

Chinese people have continuously worn masks throughout the pandemic to minimize the chance of infection. By contrast, people in many other countries stopped wearing masks and resumed pre-pandemic activities.In the United States, the CDC initially told people not to wear masks, hoping to save supplies for medical personnel, and then changing course to say that people should wear masks.

Chinese leadership have also consistently emphasized the importance of virus prevention, while former U.S. President Donald Trump spent months downplaying the seriousness of COVID-19, and even suggesting that disinfectant could treat the illness.

In the U.S. this haphazard response during a period of a more deadly variant resulted in more than one million deaths and severely impacted the healthcare system.

In 2021, there were at least 30 strikes by healthcare workers in the U.S., according to Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. More than half a million healthcare workers quit their jobs in August 2021, the most in a single month in 20 years.

Since public services, such as the medical sector, is publicly-owned in China, there will be no strikes of medical staff that have occurred in other countries.

Due to effective measures against the pandemic over the past three years, the case fatality rate remained a low one of .31 percent over the three years of the pandemic in China. Across the globe, that rate was 1.03 percent, according to the World Health Organization.

As it faces its next challenges with an easing of restrictions China is working to mange the outbreaks and reshuffle resources to better address needs. Fever clinics have been set up, as have quarantine outpatient services for positive cases and special areas for more severe cases.

 

Government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry are also stepping up efforts to secure production and distribution, including sending additional personnel to factories to ensure sufficient supplies.

China's prudent policies has allowed it to save lives, and learn from the mistakes of other nations to better cope and handle what may come.

For more, check out our exclusive content on CGTN Now and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The China Report.