CHINA is witnessing a targeted response to Covid-19, aiming to protect lives following the country’s recent reopening, reinvigorating the planet’s second-largest economy.

This doesn’t mean the Chinese government is abandoning the approach that has coped with more than 100 coronavirus flare-ups over the past three years. Rather, it is further refining measures to contain the virus in a timely way and minimising the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic.

The adjustment comes after China’s health authorities assessed that the omicron variant circulating in the country has weakened.
“The strain is more transmissible, but a majority of infected people can fully recover within a week,” the country’s top respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan said, referring to a surge in Covid infections in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai after China began easing control measures nationwide.

Although the dominant strain of omicron and its variants have proven to be milder than the original coronavirus and delta strains, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention warned that people with pre-existing illnesses, the elderly and the unvaccinated are still likely to develop severe symptoms.

Health first

World Health Organisation data shows that despite having a population of 1.4 billion, a significant elderly population and a relative lack of medical resources compared to developed countries, the Chinese mainland has recorded only a fraction of Covid cases and deaths compared to countries such as the US, India, France, and Germany. This is thanks to dynamic prevention and control measures as well as the collective diagnosis plan implemented in China.

And it was no small feat that China secured the world’s lowest rates of infection, severe cases, and deaths at the height of the pandemic.

China has fine-tuned its pandemic policy several times over the past three years, studying factors such as the pathogenic and epidemiological characteristics of the virus, population immunity, the country’s medical system, as well as the situation abroad, according to Liang Wannian, a senior member on the virus control panel appointed by the National Health Commission (NHC).

“We must keep in mind that this is a massive systematic undertaking that requires taking many factors into account,” he said.

The NHC this month reduced the previous 20 pandemic measures to 10, critically addressing public concerns about PCR testing, quarantine requirements and daily access to medicine and medical services.

Patients with mild or no symptoms are now encouraged to quarantine at home and use self-administered antigen tests as more of the population realises the importance of conserving medical resources in response to a surge in cases as restrictions are eased.

“The outbreak will peak within a month, and it will take three to six months for China to weather this wave of the outbreak, said Zhang Wenhong, director of the National Centre for Infectious Disease. Zhang warned that medical workers should be prepared to contract Covid at a time when the medical system is at risk of being overwhelmed.

Race against time

Last month, the journal Nature published an article stating that vaccinating the elderly, stocking up on antiviral drugs and expanding hospital facilities would help China make the transition to a new phase in the battle against the coronavirus.

China had fully vaccinated over 1.27bn people, or 90 per cent of the population, and delivered booster shots to around 811 million by last November, according to the NHC.

However, it has a large ageing population, many of those people have underlying health conditions, and the vaccination rate among the elderly is lower.

Eighty-six per cent of people over the age of 60 have received two vaccinations — but among those aged 80 and above that figure drops to 65.8 per cent.

“There is a pressing need to step up vaccination efforts across the nation,” Zhong hinted at the approaching travel rush ahead of China’s Spring Festival next month, asking seniors and people with underlying health conditions, in particular, to get vaccinated.
In its recent action plan, China adjusted the booster vaccination protocol, requiring local governments to extensively survey the elderly – the highly vulnerable group lagging behind the general population — and to ramp up services and vaccination awareness campaigns.

Earlier in December, the National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control assured people above the age of 80 that three doses of vaccine could reduce the risk of coronavirus-related death from 14.7 per cent to 1.5 per cent.

To shore up preparedness for possible exit waves, the NHC said that hospitals have moved quickly to increase ICU beds, while doctors and nurses could be redirected to these ICUs, and medical resources from top hospitals in each province should help those in need in rural areas.

Under the newly released medical services plan, local authorities are required to allocate more medical resources to key groups including the elderly, who can easily develop severe symptoms. The guidelines also call for fever clinics and designated medical facilities to be upgraded.

Economic certainty

Effective virus control allowed China to emerge from the global epidemic-induced slump with an average annual growth rate of more than 5 per cent over the past two years, making it the only economy to reverse the impact of the pandemic.

As the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, China boasts the biggest and most complete industrial system. At the height of the pandemic in 2020, China’s export of medical supplies maintained steady growth, offering stronger support to the international community in fighting the virus. Manufacturing in China accounted for 28.5 per cent of the global total in the same year.

To ease the pressure of inflation globally, China has stepped up efforts to strengthen the resilience of industrial and supply chains, offering solid support related to raw materials, production capacity, logistics, and sales for both domestic and foreign companies.

China’s institutional endeavours, including the Belt and Road Initiative and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, have reaffirmed the benefits of multilateralism and high-quality foreign trade. Wider market access, foreign investment law and now the adjustment in Covid policy have made China more appealing to foreign businesses.

Since late November, private business groups have been travelling on government-backed charter flights to regional markets like Japan and South Korea, as well as the Middle East and Europe, in a bid to secure more export orders. They echo the concept of “daring to make a break” from the top policymakers’ latest meeting analysing China’s economic work in 2023.

The IMF projected a 3.2 per cent growth in China’s economy in 2022, up to 4.4 per cent in 2023. But this rebound, if strong, relies on China better co-ordinating its Covid response and orderly socioeconomic reopening.