May 24,2022
FACING the highly transmissible Omicron variant, China is sticking with a dynamic zero-COVID policy when most other countries have eased restrictions and shifted towards living with the virus.
Some overseas media question the sustainability of the dynamic zero-COVID approach, citing the high social and economic cost.
However, China is determined to contain the virus while maintaining economic growth. This strategy stems from a deep care for the vulnerable, a strong belief in the people’s strength and resilience, and unswerving faith in the country’s future.
The dynamic zero-COVID approach suits that goal best.
Safeguarding people’s health
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has always put the people and their lives first. China’s dynamic zero-COVID policy is not aimed at realizing zero infection, but rather at bringing COVID-19 under control at the minimum social cost in the shortest time possible so as to effectively protect the health, normal life and production of the Chinese people to the maximum.
The relaxation of epidemic control and prevention is not suitable for the world’s most populous country, home to 267 million elderly people aged 60 and above and 260 million people with underlying health conditions, currently vaccination rates for elderly and children are not high enough.
Moreover, with unbalanced regional development as well as insufficient medical resources, China would see widespread infections with a huge amount of severe cases and deaths if the strict virus control measures were loosened prematurely.
“If we are not firm about the dynamic zero-COVID policy, China may miss the best time to stem the resurgence of cases, which may lead to higher costs and unbearable consequences,” China’s leading epidemiologist Liang Wannian recently said.
If China abandons the current dynamic zero-COVID policy, China could face more than 1.5 million COVID-19 deaths, a study published in Nature Medicine concludes.
According to another study published in Lancet, the persistence of dynamic zero COVID-19 community transmission in Shanghai and other regions will overcome weak links in the immunological barrier in populations across the country.
“When you look at the world, we can say that China’s method is more suitable when considering public health,” Bulent Ertugrul, an expert from Reyap Hospital in Istanbul, told Xinhua, noting that the dynamic zero-COVID approach has proved a significant success in China.
Since March this year, China has withstood the most severe challenge on COVID-19 control and prevention since the anti-epidemic battle of Wuhan in early 2020, as sporadic resurgences of domestic cases erupted in many regions across China.
Thanks to the zero-COVID policy of mass testing, quarantine, temporary lockdowns, and closed-off management, the current wave of epidemic has steadily shown signs of improvement.
China’s financial hub Shanghai has cut off the community transmission of COVID-19 in all of its 16 districts and is seeing more factories return to normal operations and businesses reopen.
Ensuring economic development
It is inevitable that the stringent anti-epidemic measures will cause short-term economic pains, but the claims that anti-epidemic control and prevention measures will stifle the growth of the world’s second-largest economy is shortsighted.
Dynamic zero-COVID does not run counter to economic development, rather it is a counter-epidemic policy that ensures economic growth in the long run.
Source : Xinhua
