Digital technology to control COVID-19 in China: issues, challenges and implications for the healthcare system

Abstract

In the current era, public health crises are presenting new systematic and cross-border characteristics and uncertainty. Public health crises are challenges for governments and health systems. The development of digital technology has changed the world and connected it as a “village”, and digital technology has played a critical role in providing support during public health crises over the past three decades. From the perspective of empowerment theory, we explore the role of digital technology in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and digital technology approaches to controlling COVID-19 in China. Accordingly, we identify the challenges of using digital technology to control public health crises, including the imbalance of the rights and responsibilities of governance subjects, the incompatibility of the governance model and digital technology and the inadequate application of digital technology. Considering implications for the successful prevention and control of COVID-19, we suggest that the government should improve the balance of rights and responsibilities for coordinated crisis governance, link digital technology and the governance system and broaden the grassroots governance community.

China's COVID-19 Control Strategy and Its Impact on the Global Pandemic

“…Repeated waves of the disease are not only the current situation in China but also a major challenge to the future prevention and control of the pandemic ( 31 ). The COVID-19 strain continues to mutate during its spread, increasing the difficulty of pandemic prevention and control.…”

COVID-19 in China: A Rapid Review of the Impacts on the Mental Health of Undergraduate Students

“…First, the government should improve its management mechanism for responding to public emergencies. There are always opportunities to improve the government's programs for joint prevention and control, make policy and regulatory information public and improve undergraduate students' cognitive bias toward COVID-19 and reduce the occurrence of excesses (3)(4)(5). Second, the government should make full use of various publicity channels to improve the credibility of mainstream media.…”

“…In addition, the staff must show the health code and itinerary code. In the temperature measurement area at the entry, the body temperature will be detected by an automatic infrared thermal imaging thermometer ( 5 – 7 ). Those with abnormal body temperatures will be sent to the outdoor observation and remeasurement area for remeasurement or treatment.…”

“…Strict pandemic prevention measures are being adopted or maintained to intensify the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic. In some countries (regions), the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic has lessened, and some restrictive measures have been gradually relaxed (4)(5)(6).…”

Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic in governing smart cities

“…Nonetheless, to be effective against pandemics, smart cities must change into more collaborative, robust, proactive, and integrated environments [25]. Despite this issue, the implementation and promotion of new governance models have not received adequate attention [107] and many smart cities were as much unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic as other cities without a smart-city platform [41]. Therefore, although interesting, the relevance of smart technologies implementation does not rely on its technological approach (technological determinist view) but on its potential for reforming public governance models to more open, collaborative, and participative ones [84,85] with the aim at being more effective to face pandemics [112].…”