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By John Gong and Xiaopeng Yin

Dr. John Gong is a professor at the University of International Business and Economics and a research fellow at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at UIBE. Dr. Xiaopeng Yin is a professor at the University of International Business and Economics and the executive associate dean of UIBE’s Global Value Chain Institute.

The recent mini-outbreak of COVID-19 cases in Beijing, numbered above 50 by the time of this writing, sends out several important messages while serving as a stark reminder that the battle against this vicious virus is far from over. COVID-19 can be back any time of the year, unlike the SARS pandemic in 2003 that disappears as the summer time arrives. This damn virus doesn’t die under the sun. We somewhat know this already when the infection numbers shot up in March in places like Singapore and Malaysia, but I guess the near zero domestic infection situation in the past two months has led us to complacency with the wishful thinking that the scorching sunshine in June and July would somehow make a difference. Barely a week into June, our hope is shattered. Similar instances in South Korea in recent days have also proven us wrong.

Experts have been talking about the second wave, which I have contributed my fair share in the media in recent weeks, mostly out of the historic lesson associated with the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu. But COVID-19’s spread doesn’t appear to be in discrete waves – we are never done with the first wave. It is continuous and never ending -- until a cure medicine or an effective vaccine is developed.

Second, with much of the rest of the world still boiled in serious battles against this virus, China is not likely to stand insulated and unaffected. The genetic sequencing of the virus discovered in Xinfadi in Beijing three days ago appears to be different from the domestic lot having wreaked havoc in Wuhan. It is actually closer to the contagion type in Europe, which means it is quite possible that a virus originating in foreign faraway lands has crept ashore, even besides the extremely restrictive protective measures implemented at border entry points so far. The exact transmission trace and path are still not clear at this point.

Third, the lessons and the practices developed so far in China are utterly right and more importantly utterly rightful. Ever since the outbreak in Wuhan, China has implemented stringent measures, including some are still enforced so far, for things like contact tracing, checking temperatures, wearing masks in public transportations and etc. Some of them have been criticized by the West as draconian measures at the expense of compromising personal privacy. Thank goodness that this time we are indeed able to trace out thousands of people who have been in close contact with the wet market personnel in Xinfadi.

Credit to the Beijing municipal government’s immediate resolute actions to test over 4,000 people literally overnight, the 50 some infection cases would not have been possibly discovered otherwise. And think about the horrible counterfactual consequences of not being able to screen all these people so quickly, and thus letting it spread at exponential speeds that this vicious virus is proven to be able to spread. That would be Wuhan outbreak rendezvous all over again. I can’t even fathom that terrifying scenario.

It is clear that luckily, this country has been doing the right thing. But against the prospect that in coming months we will be constantly irked by this kind of mini-outbreaks as in Xinfadi, there should be another side of our strategy in addition to stringent measures and resolute reactions. That is, we should keep on with our daily lives and not stand deterred.

This is especially important in this case, as Xinfadi’s wet market handles 80% of Beijing’s fruit and vegetable wholesale businesses, and there are already reports of panic buying and stocking at some local groceries. How do we as responsible citizens overcome fear and panic for something that is entirely uncalled for is what we need to learn moving forward.

This virus is going to be with us for some time, and we can’t afford letting it ruin our economy. We have already gone through hell for two months with hundreds of thousands of small businesses belly up and tens of millions of innocent but jobless people waiting in the wind. The country cannot afford going through another round of lockdown again, as we are now living in a new normal, a world intertwining both social and economic interactions as usual with the virus possibly still spreading occasionally.

That means that we are determined to keep our unaffected stores open, our unfettered wallets open, and our unrepressed mindsets open. People are not going to all chicken-out staying at home. People are not going to be discriminatory against those traveling in and out of Beijing. We are not going to dim the light to let the night economy going down the drain. We will keep the economic engine roaring again, while keeping a vigilant eye on any inkling of the virus propping up.