China’s Covid Zero policy defended as Shanghai struggles to contain virus

China’s Covid Zero policy defended as Shanghai struggles to contain virus
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As China sees its worst coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak since the start of the pandemic, the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship newspaper defended President Xi Jinping’s stringent Covid Zero policy, saying the strategy is essential to saving lives and keeping the economy going. The People’s Daily, in a front-page commentary, said that the highly transmissible omicron variant “has made it more difficult to find the virus and prevent the epidemic.”

It added that “the more this is the case, the more we should adhere to the general policy of ‘dynamic zero’ without hesitation or wavering,” using Beijing’s wording for the country’s virus approach.

Shanghai, China’s financial and economic hub, has been under lockdown for more than a week as authorities try to contain the virus through mass testing and isolation, which is proving less effective against the highly transmissible variants. The Chinese financial hub is adding tens of thousands of beds by transforming conference centres and conscripting neighbouring provinces to create isolation facilities.

On Thursday, Shanghai reported 21,222 new Covid cases, up from just over 9,000 cases on Sunday in a worrying spike.

Omicron drove Covid waves in different parts of the world but countries avoided stringent measures as the fatalities remained low.

Making a case for the Covid Zero policy against the new variants, The People’s Daily argued the stringent measure “can not only reduce the harm of the epidemic to people’s health and life safety, but also balance the relationship between social and economic development and epidemic prevention and control to the greatest extent.”

The policy is designed to “achieve the maximum prevention and control effect at the least cost,” the newspaper said.

The lockdown has led to food and medicine shortages, which is fuelling discontent among resident over China’s Covid containment strategy, reported Bloomberg.

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