The pandemic is here: The story of what China did to contain the virus

Mass CT scans, four-hour turn-around on tests, and a thousand-bed hospital built in a few days - can a democracy do the same?

It seems that as the rest of the world braces for what, on 11 March, has officially been declared a pandemic, China has successfully managed to contain its own outbreak — at least at the time of writing.

On Saturday, state media reported 99 new cases over the previous 24 hours â€” the first time since 23 January that such statistics have been limited to just two digits.

So to what has this apparent success been due?

We’ve read about the city-wide lockdowns, the strict emergency measures, and we all saw the time-lapse video showing the sudden construction of a 1000-bed hospital facility from a hole in the ground in just over a week.