The outbreak of a virus such as COVID-19 is composed of a series of seemingly random incidents which are nevertheless interconnected. In a novel approach, this article adopts the event system theory (EST), established in organisational behaviour science, to investigate the mechanism of epidemic governance in Wuhan, the city which reported the first case of COVID-19 and thereafter successfully controlled the outbreak. The event system analysis divided Wuhan’s response mechanism to COVID-19 into four dimensions: the graded response systems, the interactive relationship between multilevel entities of epidemic governance, the quarantine regulations and the governance of public sentiment. There are numerous lessons learned and effective measures developed from the ‘Wuhan experience’. These lessons and measures can assist other cities around the world to cope with the current COVID-19 crisis and prepare their urban governance systems for similar infectious diseases in the future. We urgently advocate the addition of more scholarly discussion on urban epidemic governance by incorporating interdisciplinary approaches like EST in particular.
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