As the world eases COVID-19 restrictions, China doubles down on zero-tolerance policy

Amid rising global vaccination rates and easing of COVID restrictions in several parts of the world, China is doubling down on its zero-tolerance policy.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan last year, China has taken the approach of strict lockdowns, multiple rounds of mass testing, and centralized quarantine. Even after purportedly vaccinating 77 per cent of its 1.4 billion people and giving booster shots, Beijing has continued with the same policy despite major consequences.

"The cost is truly rather high, but compared with not managing it, relaxing (the zero-tolerance policy), then that cost is even higher," Zhong Nanshan, a top government doctor, said in a recent TV interview.

The impact of the coronavirus related restrictions is not widespread, but it is unpredictable, according to the Washington based Diplomat magazine.

Writing for the Diplomat, Huizhong Wu noted that control over the virus has become a point of pride and a potent tool of propaganda for Beijing.

"They often trumpet their success at keeping deaths relatively low, especially in contrast to the United States, whose COVID-19 response the Foreign Ministry spokesman has called a total failure," Huizhong said.

Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said, "It's becoming part of the official narrative that promotes that approach and links that to the superiority of the Chinese political system."

Recently, China's Center for Disease Control, Gao Fu stated the country could open up once it is 85 per cent vaccinated, an indication that the Chinese government is aware that people are eager for the full reopening of the country.

"Regardless of the time you sacrificed, or how much money you spent, in the face of life, in front of health, those things are not worth mentioning," said Wang. "For everyone's health, for society to be more stable, some people have to make sacrifices."

( With inputs from ANI )