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Coronavirus: if China is willing to go big on testing booths, why not do the same for vaccination?

Name: Shanghai doubles down on quarantine measures in Covid-19 fight
Uploaded: 2022-05-17T15:00:19.000Z
Duration: 2 min 30 s
Description: Shanghai doubles down on quarantine measures in Covid-19 fight

Authorities in China want to ensure every citizen has access to a nucleic acid test booth within a 15-minute walk, while vaccination of elderly people lags

Logistically, combining the two operations would be difficult but the pay-off includes reducing the incidence of death and serious illness from coronavirus

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Healthcare workers in an inflatable Covid-19 testing lab in Beijing’s Shunyi district. China wants there to be a Covid-19 testing booth within a 15-minute walk of citizens. Photo: Xinhua

Josephine Ma

Josephine Ma is China news editor and has covered China news for the Post for more than 20 years.

Published: 11:00pm, 17 May 2022

In the past two weeks, nucleic acid test booths have sprung up in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, part of China’s plan to make tests routine and require residents to show negative Covid-19 test results when they go to work, school or use public transport.

It involves enormous resources. These test booths are open long hours and there are many because the authorities want to ensure every citizen has access within a 15-minute walk.

Ma Xiaowei, head of National Health Commission (NHC), wrote in Qiushi journal this week the government planned to set up separate teams to do nucleic acid tests so healthcare workers would not be called on to do the task, but it would take time to form the teams.

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Shanghai doubles down on quarantine measures in Covid-19 fight

Large amounts of resources have been pulled from elsewhere in the healthcare sector for the tests, and resources for other services will inevitably be affected. For example, in Beijing’s Chaoyang district some vaccination centres have already been converted into test centres.

The priority for officials is to identify every case – they must keep the number of infections down or risk their careers. However, they should not overlook the importance of vaccinating elderly people which, although still on the government agenda, may not be as immediately pressing to them as keeping the number of Covid-19 cases down.

Vaccinating the elderly cannot achieve the political goal of reaching zero Covid cases because infection is still possible after vaccination, but it is instrumental in reducing the incidence of death and severe illness. This is the ultimate goal, with the government arguing they must maintain zero-Covid because it is the only way to reduce the number of deaths.