A wide range of factors – including protests, rising infection numbers and the heavy toll on the economy – accelerated the pace of reopening.
China succeeded in containing Covid-19 during the first two years of the pandemic, but the emergence last year of a more transmissible variant of the virus that causes the disease proved to be too much of a challenge.
China’s sudden – and chaotic – break from zero-Covid has cost the economy and raised questions about the country’s top-down economic leadership model.
Despite locking cities down for prolonged periods and imposing strict control on movements, the low vaccination rate among the elderly may prove a crucial error.
The “infection tsunami” sweeping the country after an abrupt pivot away from its zero-Covid strategy has plunged millions into despair.
