Interview: China has done what can be done for now, says epidemiologist

The Chinese authorities have responded appropriately to the novel coronavirus outbreak, given all the information they first had at their disposal and the absence of effective vaccines, a leading Danish epidemiologist told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Niels Hoiby, a professor at the University of Copenhagen and chief physician with the Clinical Microbiology Department at the Danish National Hospital, said he "refuses" to be a critic of the Chinese government's handling of the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19).

"Realizing what an enormous population China has and all these megacities, it's very, very difficult," Hoiby said. "What China is doing, is the right thing ... they (have) isolated people, they have imposed travel restrictions. I think what they have done is what can be done at the present time."

His personal assessment is that COVID-19 is not particularly contagious, as one person infecting three to four others on average is, in Hoiby's opinion, less contagious than other viruses.

"It means that you probably have to be rather close to the carrier to be infected. We also know that mortality is about 2 percent ... So, if you look at what we call the danger, for instance in Denmark, I don't think the danger is very big, not at all," the epidemiologist said.

Media reports about COVID-19 will help remind Danish medical staff to keep a safe distance from their patients, he said. "It's very important that we have this information now. So, at least the staff will know how to protect themselves."

Denmark is going to get more solid information on how COVID-19 infects people and its domestic situation on the coronavirus before it begins isolation procedures, he said.

But such information needs to be handled with due care and caution, as significant economic consequences are always at stake for nations plagued by major health problems, Hoiby warned.