Coronavirus pandemic in China is over, top Covid-19 adviser to Beijing declares

Name: No longer afraid: people in Chinese city of Wuhan begin to leave Covid pandemic behind
Uploaded: 2023-02-23T12:31:45.000Z
Duration: 5 min 12 s
Description: No longer afraid: people in Chinese city of Wuhan begin to leave Covid pandemic behind

Liang Wannian hails China’s political system, its people and professional public health system as ‘decisive’ factors behind win in Covid battle

Remarks come a week after China’s top leadership also hails ‘decisive victory’ and ‘miracle’ of successful exit from zero-Covid

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A couple poses for pre-wedding photos near the Forbidden City in Beijing, as restrictions are eased and tourists return after nearly three years of zero-Covid policy. Photo: EPA-EFE

Xinlu Liang

Published: 8:31pm, 23 Feb 2023Updated: 8:52pm, 23 Feb 2023

The pandemic in China is over, the country’s top adviser on its Covid-19 response said, declaring a “decisive victory” days after core leaders called the successful exit from zero-Covid policy a “miracle”.

“The pandemic still exists from a global perspective and the harm of the disease still exists, but we can say our country has achieved a major and decisive victory in the prevention and control of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Liang Wannian, head of the National Health Commission’s Covid-19 expert response team, said.

“As a populous country, we have created a good example of successfully emerging from the pandemic.”

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No longer afraid: people in Chinese city of Wuhan begin to leave Covid pandemic behind

Liang’s remarks on Thursday came a week after the Politburo Standing Committee – the top decision-making body of China’s ruling Communist Party – also hailed a “decisive victory” over the pandemic, with members at a meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping labelling the pivot to living with the virus as a “miracle”.

The superiority of China’s political system, the power of its people, and its professional public health system were among the factors that “played a decisive role” in winning the battle against the disease, Liang said.

Health authorities had taken into account the metrics of the infection rate, population immunity levels, virus mutations, the resilience of China’s healthcare system, and the prevention and response mechanism to come to this conclusion, he explained.

This comes as China reverts to normal life after nearly three years of strict anti-pandemic restrictions involving mass testing, quarantines, lockdowns and border controls, under a “zero-Covid policy” that hurt its economy and sparked social discontent.