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As I see it | Coronavirus: is China really about to ease its tough border restrictions?
- Zhong Nanshan has listed the prerequisites for the country to reopen, including ‘relatively’ low transmission elsewhere
- Beijing has concerns about how its health care system would cope with a major outbreak, especially in rural areas
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Top respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan has got people wondering if China is about to ease its tough stand on border restrictions.
In an interview with Southern People Weekly magazine over the weekend, he listed the prerequisites for reopening: 80 to 85 per cent of China’s population would have to be vaccinated against Covid-19, which is expected by year’s end; vaccination rates would need to be high in other countries; and their transmission and death rates would need to be “relatively” low.
The low transmission target is the problem, since it is clear that the vaccines reduce but do not prevent transmission – though they have been found to significantly reduce deaths and hospitalisations.
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This has been seen in Singapore, where 80 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated. Soon after it began to ease restrictions and move away from its Covid-zero strategy, infections skyrocketed – one expert has suggested they could hit 10,000 a day in two weeks – though most are mild and asymptomatic.
Singapore is now trying to “buy time” to prepare its health care system by reimposing some restrictions. Whether it can keep the virus at bay and successfully reopen is something that is being closely watched by other countries, like China, that are sticking to a zero-tolerance policy for now.
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