Coronavirus: mass tests are unnecessary, says China’s chief epidemiologist
- A number of Chinese cities have carried out mass tests, but Wu Zunyou from the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says localised tests are enough
- Testing millions has a high social cost and is not supported by science, expert says
China’s chief epidemiologist has said citywide Covid-19 tests are unnecessary because more limited testing should be enough to stop the disease spreading.
Earlier this month, the eastern city of Qingdao carried out 11 million coronavirus tests in just five days after 12 new cases were linked to a local hospital. The tests did not find any new cases.
“Qingdao has the determination to do that, but it’s overkill,” Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist with China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told China Newsweek on Saturday. He said transmission would be confined to the vicinity of the hospital and argued the tests had been carried out for non-scientific reasons.
Other citywide tests have been carried out in Beijing, Jilin, Dalian and Urumqi after local clusters emerged, but Wu said it would be enough to carry out tests in areas where new cases emerged.
Beijing, which saw a local outbreak linked to a wholesale food market in June decided to test 20 million people despite opposition from experts, he said.
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Wu said citywide tests may help to reassure residents and officials, but “when tests expanded and no cases were found … the social cost was too big and unnecessary”.
Beijing eventually listened to experts and stopped after testing about 10 million residents, Wu said.
China has brought the epidemic under control through lockdowns, mass testing and strict contact tracing and quarantine, but Wu said caution was needed when opening up to the rest of the world.
“For European and American countries, the appeal of opening is understandable because their epidemic situation is very serious … If we open, all previous efforts will be wiped out,” he said.
The United States recorded a record number of new cases, with 80,000 on Friday while Europe is battling a second wave of the disease. The pandemic has infected more than 42 million people and killed more than 1.15 million worldwide.
Domestic travel has fully resumed in China but international flights are still strictly controlled.
Wu said China can only afford “gradual and stable opening based on its handling capacity”.
“We need to make sure the number of imported cases and people from overseas who need medical observation is within an acceptable range,” he continued.
He warned that if China lowered its guard and allowed Covid-19 to start spreading again “the price will be too big to accept”.
Wu said the environment where “ordinary citizens live” was free of the virus but travellers returning to China posed a risk to border staff or workers in the hospitals and hotels where they are quarantined.
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He also said there was still a risk from contaminated frozen food packing.
“China is safe as long as the close-loop management is done properly,” Wu said, but even with vaccines it will be a “huge challenge” globally to bring down infection rates to a level where normal life can resume.
