China not ready to ease strict Covid-19 controls, says senior health official
- National Health Commission estimates around 1.1 billion people will have been vaccinated by the end of October
- More than 900 million people are fully vaccinated, but senior official admits it is getting harder to convince holdouts to take the shot
Zheng Zhongwei, head of medical science development at the National Health Commission, said those strict measures – including quarantine, rigorous testing and large-scale contact tracing – would not be changed easily.
“We will not relax controls until we have reached a certain level of vaccine coverage. We will not relax controls unless we make a judgment about the virus and how vaccination can guarantee the effectiveness of adjusting epidemic control measures,” Zheng told a health forum on the sidelines of the China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing.
But Zheng said China’s “firm resolution” had contained more than 30 outbreaks since the disease first emerged at the end of 2019, adding that three factors – strict public health controls, a high vaccination rate and therapeutic treatment – would be needed to “end the epidemic”.