COVID-19 Wenzhou Community Based Isolation Strategy for Controlling the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic

Background: Wenzhou City in Zhejiang Province, China is a non-municipal municipality with the worst outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outside of Hubei Province. In this report, we intend to introduce and analyze the COVID-19 Wenzhou Community based Isolation Strategy (COVID-WCIS) for COVID-19, and then determine whether the control measures implemented were effective.Methods: The Wenzhou government has recently implemented the COVID-WCIS. It consists of the following: set up designated hospitals; restrict return travel to Wenzhou from Hubei and isolate individuals who have recently returned from Hubei; close entertainment venues; delegate testing for the virus; control population movement and for all individuals to wear a face mask; close high-speed exits and public transportation, suspend school and halt construction projects; limit movement within households; control inward and outbound traffic, and limit work attendance. Furthermore, data regarding new infections will be collected daily, the total number of infections and the number of cases who locally reside versus those visiting the city will be determined.Findings: From January 22, 2020, Wenzhou initiated COVID-WCIS. As of February 17, 2020, Wenzhou had a total of 504 confirmed cases and this number was stable until March 1st, 2020. Since February 11, 2020, the number of newly diagnosed patients dropped to below 10. The number of new cases reached its peak on January 29, 2020 (58 cases), and the transmission pressure of imported cases had basically been released by February 3, 2020. On January 31, February 4, and February 6, there were dramatic declines in the number of cases, which we believe were due to the implementation of policies 6-8 (see below).Interpretation: With the implementation of COVID-WCIS, the overall number of cases declined dramatically, resulting in the city’s epidemic being well controlled. The international community should adopt similar measures implemented by COVID-WCIS to control outbreaks and prevent an epidemic.Funding Statement: This work was supported in part by Zhejiang Provincial High-level Talents Program (2017-102), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0100200, 2016YFC1101200), the Zhejiang Provincial Key Research and Development Program (2018C03G2090634).Declaration of Interests: None of the authors has any conflicts of interest to disclose.