Three ships and a lesson in tackling emergency

Three passenger vessels－Diamond Princess, MS Westerdam and Costa Serena－were at sea when the novel coronavirus broke out. The ships then docked in Japan, Cambodia, and China respectively.

On domestic social media, some users have reviewed what the ships and their passengers went through next.

Epidemic control measures aboard the Diamond Princess received flak from both passengers and Japanese experts. When the quarantine period ended, the Japanese passengers went home by public transport.

MS Westerdam was at sea for almost two weeks, every port denying it entry until it finally docked in Cambodia. The last passenger on board the vessel finally alighted almost a week later, on Feb 19.

Costa Serena returned to Tianjin port on Jan 25 and the local authorities immediately launched an emergency response system. Within 24 hours, the authorities verified places the passengers had recently visited, completed nucleic acid tests on 17 passengers who had a fever and on ruling out novel coronavirus infections allowed all the passengers to alight.

In a nutshell, the authorities in Tianjin completed within 24 hours what the authorities in the other countries took days to accomplish. China has demonstrated its efficiency in handling the epidemic situation as a whole. After the epidemic broke out, medical teams rushed to Wuhan, capital of Hubei province and the epicenter of the outbreak. Over 40,000 medical workers are helping out there. As the province called for more help, the central government arranged each provincial-level administrative region to partner with one of the 16 cities to provide assistance.

During the Wenchuan earthquake of 2008 the State mobilized people and resources across the country to assist Sichuan province.

Involving the whole country's resources during a disaster comes easy for China, given its system. We are not saying that the Western system is all bad, but there are lessons to be learned from how China has handled the emergency situation.