"Zero Covid still less costly than living with it", top expert
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By Jack Lau for SCMP
• Opening up then reimposing restrictions when infections occur, as favoured in some countries, is more costly, he tells state media
• There have been questions over how long China should maintain its policy, with most of its people vaccinated and sporadic outbreaks difficult to prevent
China’s top respiratory diseases expert has defended the country’s zero-Covid strategy against scrutiny from some public health experts, saying it was still less costly than living with the disease and reintroducing restrictions each time outbreaks occurred.
The country had no option but to aim for zero infections because the coronavirus was replicating quickly and the global death rate of about 2 per cent was unacceptable, Zhong Nanshan said in an interview with CGTN, China’s state-owned international media arm, published late on Monday.
“Some countries have decided to open up entirely despite still having a few infections,” Zhong said. “That led to a large number of infections in the past two months and they decided to reimpose restrictions. This flip-flopping approach is actually more costly. The psychological impact on citizens and society is greater.”
China has maintained one of the toughest approaches to containing Covid-19 as multiple countries, such as the UK, Singapore and South Korea, have decided to ease restrictions on travel and social gathering while encouraging vaccination in an attempt to return to normalcy.
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Although Covid-19 cases have increased and deaths have been recorded in those countries, mass vaccination has limited the severity of symptoms and reduced the burden on health care systems.
Zhong said China’s approach was here to stay for a “considerably long time” but the exact duration would depend on how well other countries fared in containing the virus.
“No matter how well China does, once it opens up and has imported cases, transmission will definitely occur in the country,” he said. “Therefore I believe, for now, that the zero-transmission strategy is not too costly, but is in fact a relatively less costly method.”
Last month, Zhong said strict measures against the coronavirus were needed because China’s vaccination rate had not passed 80 per cent.
As of last Friday, 1.07 billion people, or 76 per cent of China’s population, had been fully vaccinated, according to the Covid-19 control task force working under the State Council, China’s cabinet.
Despite China’s localised lockdowns, mass testing, border restrictions and limitations on movement linked to travel history, at least seven local outbreaks have emerged since mass vaccination began in March. Some outbreaks have been linked to imported cases in border regions.
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Source: SCMP
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3154568/zero-covid-still-less-costly-living-it-chinas-top-expert-zhong
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