‘Living with Covid-19’ not an option for China, government adviser says

Name: As more countries ditch ‘zero-Covid’ policy, why is China opting to ‘wait and see’?
Uploaded: 2021-12-06T08:59:15.000Z
Duration: 6 min 5 s
Description: As more countries ditch ‘zero-Covid’ policy, why is China opting to ‘wait and see’?

Head of government’s panel of experts warns of ‘major epidemic, a major public health, social as well as political problem’ if China drops zero-Covid strategy

Liang Wannian acknowledges ‘fatigue’ and ‘discontent’ but says Chinese people’s altruism is the No 1 reason the country has contained outbreaks

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Chinese people accept strict pandemic control restrictions to benefit the greater good, a government adviser has said. Photo: EPA-EFE

Zhuang Pinghui

Published: 4:59pm, 6 Dec 2021Updated: 5:06pm, 6 Dec 2021

China cannot “live with Covid-19”, because it would cause large numbers of severe illnesses and deaths as well as a major “political problem”, according to a senior adviser to the government.

Professor Liang Wannian, a former National Health Commission official and head of a panel of experts advising the government on its coronavirus response, said that even though only a low proportion of infected people had become severely ill or died, China’s 1.4 billion population meant the absolute number would be significant.

“You can imagine how many will get seriously ill or die. It will be a major epidemic, a major public health, social as well as political problem,” Liang told state broadcaster China Central Television on Sunday night. “It must be brought under control and transmission not be allowed to cause so many serious illnesses and deaths.”

China has been in “whack-a-mole” mode to eliminate dozens of community outbreaks since containing its initial outbreak last year. It now has four separate outbreaks, in Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Yunnan and Hebei, with 38 new local symptomatic cases reported on Sunday.

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

Its zero-tolerance response relies on a largely closed border and strict control measures such as lockdowns. The approach has prompted suggestions that the country is isolating itself from the world, as well as questions at home after nearly two years of strict measures including frequent testing, long quarantines and restrictions on leaving residential areas where there have been cases.

Liang admitted that this had bred “fatigue” and “discontent”, but said that “being discontented does not solve any problem” and China would not follow the path of countries that opted to “lie flat” – a Chinese idiom for giving up.