Initial Public-Health Emergency Response to SARS and COVID-19 Pandemics in Mainland China: A Retrospective Comparative Study

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was reported first in China in 2003. The world is currently coping with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). We con-ducted a retrospective study to compare the initial public-health emergency response (PHER) to SARS and COVID-19 in mainland China. Methods: A qualitative comparative study was conducted to compare the PHER timelines to SARS and COVID-19 by selecting six crucial time points. Besides, we explored the speed of spread, peak time and plateau period of SARS and COVID-19, respectively, by comparing the confirmed cases in the same time interval. Results: The government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) accomplished the entire initial PHER to SARS in 127 days and for COVID-19 in 44 days. The speed of PHER for COVID-19 was 83 days faster. The peak time of SARS arose similar to 80 days later than that of COVID-19. Though the peak number of confirmed daily cases for COVID-19 was fivefold more than that of SARS, the onset of the stabilization period for COVID-19 was >2 months earlier than that of SARS. Conclusion: Overall, the speed of the initial PHER to COVID-19 pandemic was faster than that for SARS. Compared with the speed of hospital reporting and government policy -making, the speed of pathogen identification improved the most. The COVID-19 pandemic curve entered a plateau period earlier than the SARS pandemic curve, which suggests that the pandemic was controlled more effectively because of a timely PHER. The PRC govern-ment should emphasize improving the ability of hospitals to restrain infectious diseases by enhancing the direct reporting system and cultivating crisis management to empower rele-vant individuals to make timely scientific decisions.