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Boost vaccination rates to get China borders opened: Zhang Wenhong
- Leading virus expert says partial reopening could occur in the first half of 2022 but it’s hard to predict when full global travel will resume
- Open and free economy is good for China but – given India’s disastrous second wave – a relatively closed one may also have benefits, economist says
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China could see limited reopening of its borders in the first half of next year if it can speed up vaccinations against Covid-19, a top infectious disease expert said, as calls grow to lift restrictions to boost the economy.
Zhang Wenhong, director of Huashan Hospital’s department of infectious disease and of the Shanghai panel overseeing the treatment of Covid-19, said other countries that had achieved high vaccination rates were looking to reopen their borders in the second half of this year. China would need to boost its inoculation programme to achieve that target, hopefully within the first six months of 2022.
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“We are not willing to open borders when vaccination is not fast enough – why rush when we don’t have [many Covid-19] patients? But it is impossible for us to remain closed for long, and that’s why we need to boost vaccination to meet the conditions of a conditional reopening,” Zhang told a health forum in the eastern port city of Qingdao on Wednesday.
“We can start exchanges with countries that have good vaccination rates and low Covid-19 prevalence,” he said.
Calls have been mounting for China to lift its border restrictions – in place for more than a year to prevent the spread of Covid-19 – with business groups saying their operations had been affected.
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