China’s deputy prime minister in charge of overseeing epidemic prevention policy acknowledged this Thursday that the country is in a “new situation” and that Covid-19 virulence is “weakening”, signaling the end of the “zero cases” strategy.
Sun Chunlan “listened to the opinions and suggestions of experts” from China’s National Health Commission on how to “improve containment measures,” the official Xinhua news agency reported.
In addition to the Covid-19 Omicron variant having “reduced” virulence, the official stressed that “more and more people are being vaccinated” and that “more experience is accumulating in containing the virus.”
It was Sun – the only woman in the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo until the organization’s 20th congress held last October – who was scheduled to travel to cities with reported outbreaks of the new coronavirus to call for arrests and restrictions over the past two years. .
The official has now called for efforts to “optimize” the response to covid-19 and “improve” diagnostic, detection, treatment and quarantine measures, requiring the healthcare system to increase stockpiles of medicines and other resources to treat patients.
Sun’s meeting with experts comes after a weekend marked by protests in several Chinese cities against the “zero case” strategy for Covid-19.
China’s policy includes imposing lockdowns on entire districts or cities, which can take weeks or months, ongoing mass testing, and isolating all positive cases and their direct contacts in designated facilities, often under humiliating conditions.
This strategy has spawned a series of tragedies and abuses of power, culminating in large-scale protests sparked by a deadly building fire in the northwest Chinese city of Urumqi last Friday. Protesters say blockades in the area as part of epidemic prevention measures have delayed access for a fire truck. Residents were also unable to leave the building, the door of which was blocked.
To date, the Chinese leadership has justified the extreme measures on the grounds that China has a large population, an uneven level of development between regions, and a “lack of medical resources.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic in China, 5,233 people have died due to infection with the new coronavirus, according to official figures. Studies confirm that the Chinese strategy has saved millions of lives.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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