Dynamic Public Health Interventions Consistent With the Development of COVID-19 Epidemic: The Targeted Prevention and Control Guidelines in Mainland, China

Abstract Background: This study aims to describe the dynamic characteristics of COVID-19 transmission and the public health interventions in three phases in mainland, China. Methods: The number of daily reported new confirmed cases, severe cases and asymptomatic infected cases from Jan 10 to Jul 10 was analyzed. We calculated the effective reproduction number (Rt) to reflect the dynamic characteristics of epidemic transmission and intervention effect. According to the overall guidelines for prevention and control, we divided the past six months into three phases and summarized the features of main public health interventions in each phase. Results: The daily confirmed cases and severe cases of COVID-19 mainly concentrated in the first phase and the maximum Rt reached 10.75 (95%CI: 10.26-11.24). With the society-wide efforts and joint prevention and control strategy, Rt began to decline below 1.0 from Feb 19. In the second phase, the occurrence of imported infected cases caused small fluctuations. The preventive strategy, preventing both imported cases and local spread of epidemic, was mainly taken. In the third phase, the government adopted policies to prevent imported cases and domestic re-infections, responding to the regular epidemic prevention demands. Conclusion: Social isolation, wearing masks, digital management based on community and area hierarchical control were effective public health interventions in consistent with the development of COVID-19 epidemic. The targeted dynamic interventions in different phases could provide reference for other countries and regions to deal with COVID-19.