Mainland should ease its zero-Covid policy one city at a time

Since the onset of Covid-19 in early 2020, China has relentlessly pursued a zero-Covid policy, under which people are subjected to periodic testing on a large scale, contact tracing, quarantine and restrictions on mobility. The policy worked well with the country recording low case numbers and mortality compared with other countries.

However, continuation of this policy has caused significant economic damage both in China and the rest of the world, and massive disruptions of people’s livelihoods. As the rest of the world has relaxed Covid-19 policies without significant surges in morbidity and mortality, it seems logical for China at this time to re-evaluate its zero-Covid policy.

On November 11, the central government announced 20 measures to optimise its Covid-19 policy. Last week, however, the mainland saw a surge in new Covid-19 cases. However, this surge of new cases is to be expected with the easing of Covid-19 policies and quite insignificant as a percentage of the population of 1.412 billion (0.0025 per cent).

Instead of a zero-Covid policy, Beijing can implement a slower approach, by applying the optimised policy one city at a time. In addition, it could also mirror the Hong Kong experience, adopting a stepwise approach to easing Covid measures. The expected increase in Covid-19 cases will need to be accepted as a price to pay for controlling the virus. Barring any unexpected surges in new cases, the programme can be expanded, one city at a time, to the rest of the country.

Continued aggressive efforts in immunisation, early detection, reporting, appropriate quarantine and treatment modalities should be continued.