Opinion | China’s ‘new normal’ of daily Covid-19 tests risks looking increasingly abnormal as rest of world moves on
- In many Chinese cities, residents must have a negative Covid-19 test within two or three days of entering a public venue, disrupting many elements of daily life
- Authorities say the policy is necessary for China, but it risks eroding healthcare funds while the rest of the world moves on from lockdowns
There is an old saying in Chinese that every day should start with the seven necessities of “firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea”. For many Chinese residents these days, there is now an eighth necessity: Covid-19 nucleic acid testing.
Daily testing is part of the “new normal” under the country’s “dynamic zero” Covid-19 policy. Official guidelines require all major Chinese cities to set up testing booths “within a 15-minute walk” from any location to ensure testing is easily available to everyone. This means that thousands, if not tens of thousands, of testing booths are being added to each city.
Depending on the location, a person must have a negative test result within 72 or 48 hours of entering subways, office buildings or even parks. Puzzled city residents now murmur sardonic observances about the situation. “The quality guarantee for my bread is seven days,” goes one common joke, “but my health guarantee is just two days.”
This new normal in China is looking increasingly abnormal on the global stage. Repeated mass testing is not widely accepted in public health circles as a good way of handling the highly contagious Omicron variant. Sufficient vaccination, particularly for vulnerable groups, has proven to be a better way of minimising harm and deaths.
Chinese officials have argued that the country must rely on mass nucleic acid testing because its vaccination rates are low, healthcare resources are unbalanced, and potentially more infectious or harmful variants could emerge.
