Coronavirus: Other countries are giving up ‘Covid zero’. China wants to wait and see

Name: As more countries ditch ‘zero-Covid’ policy, why is China opting to ‘wait and see’?
Uploaded: 2021-10-07T15:00:20.000Z
Duration: 6 min 5 s
Description: As more countries ditch ‘zero-Covid’ policy, why is China opting to ‘wait and see’?

Chinese CDC chief Gao Fu says new strategy is being discussed and ‘everything is dynamic’ but it’s too soon to view the disease as endemic

His remarks come as other nations like New Zealand and Australia are moving away from a zero-tolerance approach

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Medical workers from Jilin province take part in a farewell ceremony on Wednesday in Harbin, Heilongjiang, where they have been helping with mass testing during an outbreak in the city. Photo: Xinhua

Simone McCarthy

Published: 11:00pm, 7 Oct 2021Updated: 7:20pm, 13 Oct 2021

Countries that have for months tightly controlled the spread of Covid-19 are one by one relaxing restrictions, as vaccination rates rise and governments seek to ease economic burdens.

But China, which pioneered controlling Covid-19 with lockdown orders and tight border rules, will remain in a “wait and see” mode when it comes to adjusting its zero-tolerance policy, Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention chief Gao Fu said on Wednesday.

“We are discussing about the new strategy in China … everything is dynamic,” said Gao, noting that health authorities had already adjusted national protocols multiple times and were “ready for any possible reassessment”.

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As more countries ditch ‘zero-Covid’ policy, why is China opting to ‘wait and see’?

However, moving to consider Covid-19 an “endemic” disease that was here to stay would take a major switch, said Gao, speaking at a virtual ministerial conference for Asean Digital Public Health, hosted by health care group EVYD Knowledge Hub in Brunei.

“We are not ready yet to claim Covid-19 as endemic, because at the moment it’s still pandemic. At the moment, it still causes very high fatalities, and psychologically our public are not ready,” he said, referring to the global situation.

Leading respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan earlier this week also said that China should only lift all its border restrictions once there were few infections in other countries and the vast majority of the Chinese population was vaccinated against the coronavirus. So far at least 78 per cent of the country has been vaccinated.

But other countries that have also sought to block the virus and have lower vaccination rates have been reassessing their policies.

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