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Life quality and safety: Zero-COVID-19 policy contains virus after it hit Wuhan hard

In 2020, COVID-19 put cities to test in terms of ensuring life quality and safety. Over theyear, 62.8 percent of the new COVID-19 cases (excluding imported cases and asymptomatic cases) were in Wuhan, but the rapid lockdown and the zero-COVID-19 policy quickly brought the virus under control. As a result, no extensive spread occurred in other cities outside Hubei province despite sporadic outbreaks, and life and production in Chinese cities quickly resumed.

The major item of life quality and safety is divided into three sub-items, namely safety and livability, living consumption, and medical welfare. The sub-items are made up of 16 data sets, including the number of people infected with the coronavirus, licensed (assistant) doctors, and top hospitals, as well as average life expectancy.

In the ranking of life quality and safety, Wuhan, hit hard by COVID-19, has fallen to the bottom of the list from eighth place in 2019. Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing are the top three, followed by Chengdu, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, and Tianjin. In the top 10 cities, Chongqing, Chengdu, and Zhengzhou have climbed higher in the ranking compared with 2019, with Chongqing entering the top three for the first time. The rankings of Beijing and Shanghai have remained unchanged, while Shenzhen and Wuhan have dropped out of the top 10.

Among the 36 core cities, Xi'an, Jinan, Shenyang, Hefei, Qingdao, Ningbo, Dalian, Harbin, Changchun, Kunming, and Hohhot have moved up in the ranking compared with 2019.