This content was published on March 14, 2022 – 07:06
Beijing (China), March 14 (EFE).- While various parts of China are facing an unprecedented number of covid infections since 2020, the epidemiologist Zhang Wenhong, one of the most influential in the country, assured that “it is not the time to debate the zero covid policy”, the Global Times newspaper reported today.
In a post on his account on the Weibo social network, in which he has more than four million followers, the expert explained that the Asian country should “use this period as an opportunity to design wiser, more complete and sustainable anti-pandemic strategies.”
Zhang admitted that China is facing the “most difficult moment” since the pandemic broke out in early 2020, since “in just eleven days”, from March 1 to 12, it went “from 119 new daily cases to 3,122”.
Despite the extent of the outbreaks, the renowned epidemiologist pointed out that “the virulence of the coronavirus has decreased” and added that “people with normal immunity and who have received a booster dose will not have a problem.”
However, Zhang assured that if China – which has had its borders practically closed to non-resident foreigners for two years and requires a minimum quarantine of 14 days for everyone who enters its territory – were to open up to foreigners, “it would increase the number of cases in a very short period and the national medical system would be overloaded”, causing “irreparable damage” to society.
For his part, Wang Guangfa, a respiratory system specialist known for being one of the first to visit Wuhan during the first global outbreak of covid in January 2020, explained this weekend that the omicron variant, already dominant in outbreaks in the Asian country, it means that there are more asymptomatic cases, “making it difficult to detect those infected in time.”
Wang, quoted by the newspaper, added that the relatively low proportion of vaccinated among the elderly “is still one of the biggest problems.”
The expert gave as an example of the adjustability of the zero covid policy the recent approval for the sale of antigen tests for the first time in China, which “will help contain” the advance of omicron.
Likewise, he expressed his hope that the number of cases “will be significantly reduced in two weeks” and even predicted that the figure of zero new cases will be achieved “in 28 days.”
Cities such as the southern Shenzhen or the northeastern Changchun are currently under partial or total confinement due to the growth in the number of infections among their population.
In recent weeks, some voices in China had hinted at a possible adjustment to the zero covid strategy, which involves movement restrictions and massive PCR tests wherever a case is detected.
Epidemiologist Zeng Guang, former head of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, recently stated that “restrictions will not last forever” and that China “will present its roadmap to coexist with the virus at an appropriate time.”
3,189 million doses of vaccines against covid have been administered in the Asian country, enough for 114% of its population, of 1,439 million inhabitants, to have received two.
According to official accounts, since the start of the pandemic, 116,902 people have been infected in the country, among whom 103,735 have managed to heal and 4,636 have died. EFE
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