China's decision to lock down the city of Wuhan, ground zero for the global COVID-19 pandemic, may have prevented more than 700,000 new cases by delaying the spread of the virus.
An international team of researchers has said drastic Chinese control measures in the first 50 days of the epidemic bought other cities across the country valuable time to prepare and implement their own restrictions.
The researchers, in China, the United States and the UK, used a combination of case reports, public health information and mobile phone location tracking to investigate the spread of the virus.
Their findings are published in the journal Science. By day 50 of the epidemic, 19 February, there were 30,000 confirmed cases in China, said Oxford fellow