Explainer
China’s zero-Covid policy explained in 30 seconds
Rampant and sudden lockdowns have sparked anger as
pressure piles on officials to curb outbreaks
Helen
Davidson
@heldavidson
Tue 29 Nov
2022 10.32 GMT
Since the
Covid pandemic began, China’s government has operated a zero-tolerance policy
on outbreaks. The resource-intensive system of targeted lockdowns, mass testing
and quarantine successfully kept the virus at bay and the death toll
extraordinarily low compared with other countries. However, newer and more
transmissible variants such as Omicron have challenged, and at times
overwhelmed, that system.
This year
there have been rampant and sudden lockdowns ranging from buildings to entire
counties, prompting frustration, fear and anger. Some, such as those in
Shanghai, Tibet and Xinjiang, have been enforced harshly, leading to food
shortages and other deprivations.
Health
experts agree that to open up now would lead to millions of deaths. China has
no herd immunity, its local vaccines are not as effective as the foreign-made
ones Beijing refuses to approve, and its health system would probably crumble.
Under this
zero-Covid policy, local officials have been tasked with the near impossible:
to resolutely control all outbreaks to maximum effect with minimal social and
economic disruption. Throughout the pandemic, these officials have faced
punishment if they are deemed to have failed in their response. It has led some
to enact sledgehammer measures in an attempt to control outbreaks before
superiors notice the social disruption.
Recent
policy tweaks have focused on improving the low rates of vaccination among the
elderly. Vaccines were encouraged but never mandatory, and fear, scepticism, or
complacency is thought to have driven refusals among millions of older people.
Zero-Covid
measures have been linked to multiple tragedies: deaths caused by delayed or
denied healthcare, suicides, 27 killed after a bus overturned en route to an
isolation facility, last week’s building fire in Urumqi. Analysts have noted
that mass protests against Covid restrictions have spread so far because many
people can see any of these tragedies happening to them or their loved ones.
But the
government has remained committed to the policy, a point emphasised by China’s
supreme leader, Xi Jinping, on his reappointment as Communist party chief last
month.
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