China to continue zero-Covid strategy: President Xi

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping said the country will “stick with” its zero-Covid strategy, as the world’s most populous nation battles its largest outbreak since the early days of the pandemic.

Speaking at a meeting of China’s top leaders, President Xi said the country should “continue to put people and life at the forefront, stick with scientific accuracy and dynamic-zero, and curb the spread of the epidemic as soon as possible,” according to state media.

Beijing must “raise the level of scientifically accurate prevention and control and continuously optimise disease control measures”, the report quoted Xi as saying. He called to “strengthen technological key areas like vaccination, rapid testing and drug research” to make virus curbs more “targeted”, CCTV said.

President Xi also urged tighter virus controls at ports of entry and stressed the need to “swiftly control local clustered outbreaks”. Tens of millions of people are currently under stay at home orders across China to try and stamp out the latest outbreak.

The country has largely kept subsequent outbreaks under control thanks to a combination of strict border controls, lengthy quarantines and targeted lockdowns, and has not reported any coronavirus-related deaths for over a year.

The highly transmissible Omicron variant is posing a stern challenge to that strategy, prompting authorities to close off cities including the southern tech hub of Shenzhen, home to 17.5 million people.

It has gone from reporting under 100 daily infections just three weeks ago to more than 1,000 per day for over a week. More than 2,400 cases were reported on Thursday, according to the National Health Commission.

Beijing’s communist leadership has said the low death rate demonstrates the strength of its governance model.  Chinese officials have also moved to free up hospital beds over fears the virus could put the health system under strain after recent outbreaks. Northeast Jilin province, which reported thousands of cases over the past week, has built eight makeshift hospitals and two quarantine centres to stem the surge in infections.

Authorities also said people with mild cases could isolate at central quarantine facilities, having previously sent all patients with any symptoms to specialist hospitals. The latest flare-ups have prompted long queues to form outside mass testing sites and seen tight controls at ports, raising fears of trade disruption.

In Shanghai – China’s biggest city and home to 25 million people – authorities have closed school campuses, locked down some residential compounds and launched a rigorous round of mass testing.