By Zhang Qiyan & Gu Tian’an, Research Team on “Mechanism on Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Prevention and Control”, Institute of Public Administration and Human Resources, DRC

Research Report, No. 14, 2019 (Total 5758) 2020-2-18

Abstract: From the perspective of information management and response to public opinion, the paper gives an analysis of the measures taken by the Central and local governments in dealing with novel coronavirus pneumonia virus, illustrates the issues relating to information disclosure and response to public opinion and proposes some countermeasures for addressing relevant problems. At present, epidemic information management and response to public opinion present the following characteristics: the public has paid close attention to the spread of the virus with high concern; the people might have acquired epidemic information and made public opinion feedback earlier than the information disclosure by the government; the public has a relatively weak ability in tracing and identifying the information from mass media and the Internet; and the spread of epidemic virus at home is fastly learned by the world. In light of the problems emerged in the information management mechanism of epidemic control and prevention and response to public opinion, it is suggested that governments at various levels strengthen the information connectivity mechanism and their ability of information processing and information release both at home and abroad. In the meantime, local governments need to be given more power to issue information to the public on virus incidents so as to give timely guidance to the people in dealing with virus infections in Wuhan city and other key cities in Hubei Province. Besides, efforts need to be made to establish a case-by-case mechanism for emergency information release.

Key words: novel coronavirus pneumonia, information management mechanism, response to public opinion, the Internet