China declares Covid-19 pandemic is over after ‘miracle’ exit from Zero-Covid policy
China is victoriously declaring that the Covid-19 pandemic has ended after a “miracle” exit from its previous Zero-Covid policy.
Liang Wannian, head of the National Health Commission’s Covid-19 expert response team, commented on the revelation.
“The pandemic still exists from a global perspective and the harm of the disease still exists, but we can say our country has achieved a major and decisive victory in the prevention and control of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
“As a populous country, we have created a good example of successfully emerging from the pandemic.”
According to the South China Morning Post, his remarks came a week after the Politburo Standing Committee also declared the pandemic as being over with members at the meeting labelling the move to live with the virus as a “miracle.”
“The superiority of China’s political system, the power of its people, and its professional public health system were among the factors that “played a decisive role” in winning the battle against the disease.”
Health officials declared the victory after measuring the population immunity levels, virus mutations, infection rates, prevention and response mechanisms, and the resilience of China’s healthcare system.
After nearly three years of living under a strict, anti-pandemic policy, or Zero-Covid policy, the country is reportedly returning to normal life pre-Covid.
During the strict regulations, residents were required to undergo mass testing, lockdowns and border controls, and quarantines that sparked public outrage and an economic downturn.
Liang cautioned that despite the pandemic being no more, the country still has “sporadic, localised” patterns of infection. He then warned the public to remain vigilant against virus mutations.
As of February 16, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says 20,000 people are in the hospital with 98 having died from the virus in the preceding week.
The surveillance head at the National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control, Yang Feng, says monitoring channels were further expanded and multiple subsystems have been set up.
Those systems include case reports, medical institutions, sewage tracking, fever clinics, and case clusters in key institutions.
“A multichannel monitoring system that takes into account normality and emergency, inbound and local [cases], urban and rural areas, general population and key population groups has been initially formed.”
A China CDC researcher, Chang Zhaorui, noted that the relatively high level of overall public immunity meant the risk of large-scale cluster outbreaks was low.
