The Asian giant abruptly turned its back in early December and lifted most of the health restrictions that had been in place for nearly three years.
Source AFP
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dSince the lifting of restrictions, the Covid-19 epidemic has exploded in China. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he was “very concerned” about the unprecedented wave of Covid-19 contamination in China for its magnitude, asking Beijing for detailed information on the seriousness of the situation. “WHO is very concerned about the evolution of the situation in China […]. To carry out a comprehensive risk assessment of the situation, WHO needs more detailed information on the severity of the disease, hospital admissions and intensive care unit needs,” said Tedros Adhanom. Ghebreyesus, during his weekly press conference .
He stressed that WHO has come “to support China to focus its efforts on vaccinating those most at risk.” Since 2020, the Chinese government has imposed strict health restrictions, in the name of a so-called “zero Covid” policy. But he ended most of these measures without warning in early December amid growing public exasperation and a major impact on the economy. Since then the number of cases has exploded, leading to fears of high mortality among the elderly, who are particularly vulnerable.
Getting vaccinated, the “exit strategy”
Dr Michael Ryan, WHO’s head of health emergencies, has long insisted on the need for more vaccinations. “We have been saying for weeks that this highly contagious virus has always been very difficult to stop completely with public health and social measures alone,” he recalled. “We really need to focus on vaccination. That said, China has made significant progress in recent weeks in vaccine distribution,” he continued, concluding that “vaccination is the exit strategy in the face of a wave of Omicron.” This variant of the original virus, which appeared shortly after than a year ago, is the most contagious.
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The vaccination campaign in China was mainly carried out using two vaccines distributed by the Chinese laboratories Sinovac and Sinopharm. “Although we are not involved, we believe there are ongoing discussions between Chinese authorities and at least one of the mRNA manufacturers to license their vaccines and manufacture them in China,” said Dr Ryan, who has encouraged these talks. The mRNA vaccines produced by the American companies Moderna and Pfizer have been remarkably effective in reducing the severity of the disease.
Origin of Covid
Almost 650 million cases of Covid contamination and over 6.6 million deaths have been recorded worldwide, according to the WHO, which however considers these figures to be far below reality. Dr Tedros on Wednesday again asked China to share its information on the origin of the virus – first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019 – to better understand its genesis.
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“We remain hopeful that China will share the data and conduct the studies we have requested and continue to request. As I have already said on several occasions, all hypotheses about the origins of this pandemic remain on the table ”, she remarked. Debate has raged since the start of the pandemic among experts trying to unravel the mystery of the origin of the virus. Studies have concluded that the virus is most likely of animal origin. A scenario questioned by proponents of the theory of a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan.
