Official: Shanghai well-equipped to deal with another outbreak

A senior health official in Shanghai said on Tuesday that the municipality has sufficient medical staff, supplies and facilities, and is capable of responding to another epidemic should it break out.

The comment was made following the emergence of 15 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases between Jan 21 and Jan 25.

Wu Jinglei, director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, said that a medical team specially set up to deal with public health emergencies as well as a multi-disciplinary team comprising doctors and nurses specializing in infectious diseases, respiratory diseases, and critical care are already on standby.

"A total of 8,000 beds have been made ready at the designated hospital in Shanghai to treat COVID-19 patients, and the amount of material related to epidemic prevention and control as well as contagion treatment at our medical institutions is sufficient," he said.

Critical medical care teams from major hospitals in the city are also standing by to assist the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center – the designated hospital in Shanghai for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, he added.

"There's no need for residents to be too concerned about this new wave of local infections in the city," said Ning Guang, president of Shanghai Ruijin Hospital.

"Shanghai is a very safe city and it is normal that cases happen in such a megacity. Shanghai has precise strategies and complete systems to cope with such outbreaks and allow its residents to live in a vibrant and efficient society."

Over at Shanghai Renji Hospital, which placed its western campus under closed-loop management after a worker tested positive for the novel coronavirus last Thursday, some doctors have already started online clinic services for their patients.

Chief physician of digestive diseases Ma Xiong, who was placed under hotel quarantine because he worked at the hospital last week, is among the first to provide online clinic service.

On Tuesday, Ma provided consultation to a patient in the hospital's Ningbo branch, using 5G technologies to remotely view patient history and analyze CT scans and other test results.