Lifting travel ban would be ‘catastrophic’ for China: Covid-19 expert

Epidemiologist and senior adviser to Beijing, Zeng Guang, says the country must not ‘blindly’ follow a WHO recommendation to ease restrictions

He recommends preparing the public psychologically for reopening once vaccination coverage in China is sufficiently high

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A senior health adviser to the Chinese government has rejected a WHO recommendation to ease Covid-19 international travel restrictions. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 5:00pm, 27 Jan 2022Updated: 5:16pm, 27 Jan 2022

A senior adviser to Beijing on the coronavirus pandemic has warned of “catastrophic consequences” for China if it “blindly” follows a World Health Organization recommendation to ease international travel restrictions.

China’s immunisation coverage is insufficient and the public psychologically unprepared for a lifting of the international travel ban, according to Zeng Guang, a member of the government’s senior expert panel and former chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, who now serves on the government’s senior expert panel. Photo: Baidu

In a social media post on Wednesday, Zeng rejected the WHO’s recommendation, issued on January 19, to ease or even lift the restrictions on international travel.

The WHO argues the restrictions can no longer “provide added value and continue to contribute to the economic and social stress experienced by state parties” given the rise of the Omicron variant.

“If we follow the WHO experts’ recommendations blindly and lift or ease international travel restrictions now without enough immunisation coverage and psychological adjustments [of the public], I think there will be catastrophic consequences,” Zeng wrote on Weibo, China’s microblogging site.

Zeng said the WHO recommendation reflected the views of Western experts and was not applicable to China, because of the country’s success in keeping Covid-19 at bay through mass screening, masking, quarantine, vaccination, travel restrictions and the suspension of international flights.

“All these measures have proved beneficial to China. Under current circumstances, it is not appropriate to ease [them] or lift international travel restrictions,” he wrote.