Coronavirus: China sticks to ‘zero tolerance’ stand on Delta variant
- The ‘zero tolerance’ strategy has worked before and can work again as the country confronts cases across the country, senior health official says
- It all depends on strict enforcement, he says
It is an approach that relies on mass vaccination, mass testing, stay-at-home orders and contact tracing.
China’s commitment to that strategy still holds, with an official from the National Health Commission’s disease control and prevention bureau saying on Thursday that China had contained the Delta variant once before, and could do it again, if containment measures were strictly enforced.
“A while ago, China successfully contained a local transmission of the Delta variant in densely populated and transient cities in Guangdong province. This proves that vaccines, mask wearing, hand washing, social distancing and avoiding gatherings are effective,” administration inspector He Qinghua said.
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He was referring to an outbreak of the Alpha and Delta variants in the southern Guangdong province that started in May through imported cases.