Investigation into Information Release of Chinese Government and Departments on COVID-19

Abstract

Information release is an important way for governments to deal with public health emergencies, and plays an irreplaceable role in promoting epidemic prevention and control, enhancing public awareness of the epidemic situation and mobilizing social resources. Focusing on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in China, this investigation chose 133 information release accounts of the Chinese government and relevant departments at the national, provincial, and municipal levels, including Ministries of the State Council, Departments of Hubei Province Government, and Bureaus of Wuhan Government, covering their portals, apps, Weibos, and WeChats. Then, the characteristics such as scale, agility, frequency, originality, and impact of different levels, departments, and channels of the information releases by the Chinese government on the COVID-19 epidemic were analyzed. Finally, the overall situation was concluded by radar map analysis. It was found that the information release on the COVID-19 epidemic was coordinated effectively at different levels, departments, and channels, as evidenced by the complementarity between channels, the synergy between the national and local governments, and the coordination between departments, which guaranteed the rapid success of the epidemic prevention and control process in China. This investigation could be a reference for epidemic prevention and control for governments and international organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), during public health emergencies, e.g. the COVID-19 pandemic.

Legal Policy Analysis Of Handling Covid-19 In The Perspective Of Human Rights Protection

“…The effectiveness of the Chinese government's policy in dealing with Covid-19 cases also impacts China's economic growth. China's financial condition gained momentum in November 2020 after China managed to control the Covid-19 pandemic [14]. Macroeconomic indicators such as industrial results, investment, consumption increased during the July-November period.…”

Policy capacity during COVID‐19 in Asia: A systematic literature review

“…Transparency in terms of information release is a key to effective COVID‐19 transmission (La et al, 2020 ; Lu et al, 2020 ; Shangguan et al, 2020 ; Yuncg et al, 2020 ). When the outbreak emerged in Wuhan, China, the Chinese government had made a mistake of minimum information release due to strict government control over information (Shangguan et al, 2020 ).…”

“…This practice was the opposite of what China's Special Administrative Region, Macao, had done: “dialogic communication” that is engagements with stakeholders through maximum media channels and networks and the commitment to transparent and genuine communication (Yuncg et al, 2020 ). The condition in China changed after the information release on the COVID‐19 was coordinated effectively at different levels, departments and channels (Lu et al, 2020 ). This evidence emphasises the importance of transparent information release to inform the people about the pandemic as well as its distribution to different media channels and networks.…”

“…Non‐pharmaceutical interventions, for example, fiscal policy, economic policy and social policy, were also identified in the literature as a response to COVID‐19 impact on other sectors apart from the public health sector (Kim, 2020 ; Le et al, 2020 ; Lu et al, 2020 ; Park & Maher, 2020 ; Upadhaya et al, 2020 ). Fiscal policy.…”

“…There is evidence in the literature that diverse forms of social intervention were applied in various countries to respond to the social risk of COVID‐19. For instance, China adopted diverse social protection programs that comprise a wide range of policy areas, for example, insurance policy, monetary intervention, service‐related intervention and legal intervention (Lu et al, 2020 , p. 12). This holistic approach is also suggested concerning labour policy response in India (Sharma et al, 2020 ).…”