How long will China’s zero-Covid policy hold out as Omicron rages around the world?

Name: Senior officials in Xian dismissed from posts as city turns corner on Covid-19 outbreak
Uploaded: 2022-01-03T16:00:22.000Z
Duration: 1 min 46 s
Description: Senior officials in Xian dismissed from posts as city turns corner on Covid-19 outbreak

China is the last holdout for a zero-tolerance strategy, even as other nations brace for a ‘viral blizzard’ caused by Omicron

With Covid-19 set to become endemic, and vaccines yet to provide total protection, a long-term strategy is the need of the hour, say analysts

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Citywide disinfection is carried out in Xian. Photo: VCG via Getty Images

Josephine Ma

Published: 12:00am, 4 Jan 2022Updated: 3:56pm, 4 Jan 2022

China’s no-holds-barred approach should be able to keep the highly transmissible Omicron variant from exploding within its borders, but the country will still need a long-term strategy as Covid-19 looks set to become endemic, analysts have warned.

This comes as China battles the spread of the disease in Xian, the capital of northwestern Shaanxi province, with nearly 1,700 people sickened in two weeks in the country’s worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic two years ago.

New symptomatic cases in Xian dropped below 100 on Sunday for the first time since December 24, but the price paid has been huge, with the city of 13 million locked down for almost two weeks, causing a public outcry over food and other shortages.

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Senior officials in Xian dismissed from posts as city turns corner on Covid-19 outbreak

China is the world’s last holdout for the zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19, as most countries brace for a viral blizzard caused by the heavily mutated Omicron variant, and many of the rich nations bank on vaccinations and booster campaigns to reduce hospitalisation.

The United States had 2 million new cases in the past week, outpacing the previous record of 1.7 million cases from January 3-9 last year, USA Today reported. Omicron accounted for about 59 per cent of all new US cases in the week to December 25, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Despite the surge in cases, countries like the US, United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland and Greece have shortened isolation periods for infected people so as to minimise the social and economic impact.

They are banking on the high vaccination rates and the milder symptoms caused by Omicron, though leading health specialists like Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, have warned that hospitals might still be overwhelmed by the rocketing number of cases.