China’s zero-Covid policy under review as economic pressure mounts, chief epidemiologist says
- Chinese researchers ‘actively thinking and planning’ ways to improve the nation’s policies in dealing with the pandemic
- But any changes to its strict restrictions would put ‘people first and life first’, Wu Zunyou says
Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist with the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said researchers were “certainly able” to roll out new strategies in the near term, while noting they were “actively thinking and planning”.
Improved control measures would differ from the current “dynamic clearing” policy, but China is unlikely to simply lift all restrictions as some Western countries have done, he said at a forum on Tuesday held by the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University.
Any changes to China’s pandemic policies would put “people first and life first”, while also allowing China to better interact with the international community and safeguard its own economic development, he said.
His comments came as debates continue over when and if Beijing will relax its coronavirus restrictions, as nations such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, Singapore and Vietnam have done.
Economists have warned that the divergence in coronavirus-control strategies with Western countries could put China at a comparative disadvantage, both socially and economically, while recent domestic outbreaks have heightened concerns about the rising cost of its zero-Covid approach.
