Time to get the country going again

With the number of new novel coronavirus infections in China dropping to 26 on Tuesday, from the peak of more than 13,000 a day several weeks ago, it is obvious the nationwide fight against the epidemic has come to its concluding stage. Now businesses need to resume their normal operations and society as a whole must recover its usual tempo of life－the sooner the better.

Any delay in rebooting the country after the stasis enforced by the outbreak will have far more negative impacts on people's livelihoods and the country's economic future than the epidemic itself. This is a lesson provided by the Ebola outbreak in Africa in 2014-16, where more people died from interruptions in day-to-day health services than from the virus itself.

However, despite the central government's repeated calls for businesses to get themselves up and running again, many enterprises are yet to see their production capacity return to the pre-outbreak level because of the many obstacles they have encountered, such as a shortage of workers and even raw materials due to logistics and supply chain disruptions caused by the epidemic.

Worse, some local government officials, instead of seeking to help enterprises solve their problems in a timely manner, have made it even more difficult for them to resume operations with red tape in the inspection and approval process.

The officials, fearful that they will be held accountable if new cases of infection are reported as factories restart production, have chosen to put their career prospects ahead of anything else.

The epidemic control measures have put an enormous strain on China's enterprises, especially the small and medium-sized ones in the service sector. Any further delay in their return to normal operations will entail widespread bankruptcies and job losses, which will threaten social stability. It could also compromise the central government's goal of lifting all people out of abject poverty to build a well-off society in an all-around way by the end of this year.

Thus governments at all levels should be helping businesses get back on their feet, which is of no less importance now than efforts to contain the virus.

Officials in some places, such as in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces, have already set a good example in this regard, initiating support policies that range from favorable financing to tax rebates and rent reductions. How well governments in other places can follow suit will determine whether the country as a whole can withstand the test of the governance system and capacity which the coronavirus epidemic has provided.