An explosive resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic has been taking place in China for several weeks. However, on Wednesday, a World Health Organization (WHO) official explained that “China’s explosion of cases began long before any easing of Beijing’s zero Covid policy”.
On Wednesday, China’s health ministry also acknowledged that infections were “increasing rapidly” in the capital. Last week, the government suddenly abandoned its zero Covid strategy, decreeing in particular the end of the automatic placement in a quarantine center for people who tested positive and the cessation of massive screening campaigns.
The zero Covid strategy was “no longer the best option”
“The explosion of cases in China is not due to the lifting of anti-Covid restrictions,” WHO’s situation management officer Michael Ryan told reporters at WHO headquarters. health emergency.
This official estimated that the “disease has spread rapidly because … control measures in themselves do not stop it”. “The increased intensity of transmissions occurred long before any change in the strategy” intended to limit contamination, underlined the WHO official.
The zero Covid strategy was “no longer the best option”, according to Michael Ryan. With the dominance of the highly contagious Omicron variant, extremely tough restrictions like those imposed in China do not serve the same purpose as in previous waves when vaccination coverage was low.
Accelerate vaccination campaigns
These types of measures were used to protect health systems while waiting for an improvement in vaccination coverage, but now their effectiveness is no longer the same, said this WHO official.
“Data from areas like Hong Kong show that Chinese inactivated vaccines, with a third dose, are working very well.” But “you need this third dose” for the vaccination to be effective, he stressed. Currently, millions of elderly people are still not fully vaccinated and hospitals do not have the resources to handle a massive influx of sick people.