Opinion | China’s zero-Covid-19 policy must end soon after sacrifices made by population to endure lockdowns, other control measures

China has reported zero deaths from Covid-19 since May 26. But few people in the country hail this as an “achievement” because the cost of getting that result has become too high for most of the population.

The lockdowns enforced in many Chinese cities over the past few weeks, along with the inconvenience and disruption these have inflicted on tens of millions of residents, have again exposed the huge economic, social and health costs of the central government’s dynamic zero-Covid-19 policy. This strategy, which was rolled out almost three years ago, helped keep the nation’s coronavirus casualties low and aided some economic recovery even when the infectious Delta variant started to spread.

With the reduced health threat posed by the Omicron variant and its two subvariants, it has become increasingly difficult to justify the dynamic zero-Covid-19 approach. While the policy can suppress – not eliminate – infections when they arise through mass testing and severe restrictions on movement, the government’s rationale for maintaining this approach has been to prevent more coronavirus casualties across China.

That is an assumption not backed by scientific evidence. Relevant studies, including one conducted by prominent epidemiologist Zhang Wenhong on 33,816 local Covid-19 cases in Shanghai earlier this year, showed that the chances are almost zero for people under 60 to get seriously ill or die from Omicron.