Facing the potential for a rapid outbreak of Covid and tragic consequences is China after deciding to abandon its tough zero-tolerance policy on coronavirus, in the wake of popular reaction, as the country seems unprepared for the Omicron mutation.
China has become a nation constantly on guard against the virus. Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader since Mao Tse-tung, was a proponent of this isolationist approach. Now Beijing has decided to go in a different direction. Sun Chunlan, vice premier and head against Covid, announced last week thatthe country's health system had "withstood the test" of Covid-19 and China was in a "new situation".
In the face of the most widespread national protests since the bloody crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989, the Chinese government suddenly abandoned its flagship policy of zero Covid.
Specifically, as reported by the Guardian, in Beijing, people were preparing to go to shopping malls or public transportation without a recent negative test. Elsewhere, they were allowed to enter parks and supermarkets without checks, or told they could be quarantined at home instead of a state facility if they came into contact with a case.
For nearly three years authorities have been fighting to keep Covid out of the country, using every tool of technology, mass mobilization and repression at their disposal, regardless of the tragic cost to individuals and the terrible damage to the national economy.
After years of telling its citizens that the only way to stay safe from Covid was to avoid him altogether, the policy axis demanded a new message. Beijing chose to present the prevalent Omicron variant as a less lethal version of the original disease.
Xi told visiting European Council President Charles Michel that China could consider easing restrictions because Omicron is less dangerous than the Delta variant, which was more common in the past.
[BR][BR]The concern
The problem, epidemiologists warn, is that Beijing's stance does not reflect studies on Omicron's impact and the country is not well prepared for a wave of deadly Covid infections it may soon face. "China needs to find a way out of this. So I think it's very helpful for them to be able to argue that the virus has evolved in some way that facilitates the opening," said Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, according to the Guardian.
"With Omicron, certainly from the studies [SO FAR], there may be some small reduction in the severity of the disease, but not a huge reduction." Omicron proved less lethal as it spread to countries such as Britain, but when it had become mainstream, about 95% of the UK population had some form of antibodies from vaccines or previous infections, Bauld said.
China has relatively low vaccination and booster rates, particularly among the vulnerable elderly - only 40% of over-80s have had booster vaccines. Almost no one has natural antibodies from previous infections.
Source: protothema.gr
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