WHO chief’s remark on China Covid strategy ‘irresponsible’
Sutirtho Patranobis
BEIJING: China on Wednesday dismissed the World Health Organisation (WHO) chief’s criticism of its zero-covid strategy and the remarks were scrubbed from the country’s social media even before the foreign ministry’s formal response.
China’s foreign ministry said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s remarks calling Beijing’s “zeroCovid” approach unsustainable and urging an urgent policy shift given the nature of the virus were “irresponsible”.
The WHO chief said he was in discussion with Chinese experts on the need for a different approach in light of new knowledge about the virus.
“When we talk about the ‘zero-covid,’ we don’t think that it’s sustainable, considering the behaviour of the virus now and what we anticipate i n the future,” Tedros said on Tuesday.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, “We hope that relevant people can view China’s policy of epidemic prevention and control objectively and rationally, get more knowledge about the facts and refrain from making irresponsible remarks.”
“The Chinese government’s policy of epidemic prevention and control can stand the test of history, and our prevention and control measures are scientific and effective,” Zhao said.
“China is one of the most successful countries in epidemic prevention and control in the world, which is obvious to all of the international community,” Zhao added.
A United Nations post on the WHO chief’s comments was removed from on China’s Twitter-like Weibo on Wednesday morning, an indication how sensitive Beijing is about criticisms of its zero-covid strategy.
READ: Shanghai official reaffirms commitment to zero-covid policy
SYDNEY: A prolonged summer heatwave in Australia left 91% of the Great Barrier Reef’s coral damaged by bleaching, according to a new government monitoring report.
It was the first time on record the reef had suffered bleaching during a La Nina weather cycle, when cooler temperatures would normally be expected.
The Reef Snapshot report offered new details of the damage caused by the fourth “mass bleaching” the world’s largest coral reef system has experienced since 2016, which was first revealed in March.
“Climate change is escalating, and the Reef is already experiencing the consequences of this,” the report warned.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which published the report late Tuesday, conducted extensive surveys of the World Heritage-listed reef between September 2021 and March 2022.
It found that after waters began to warm last December, all three major regions of the reef experienced bleaching - a phenomenon that occurs when coral is stressed and expels brightly coloured algae living in it. Although bleached corals are still alive, and moderately affected sections of the reef may recover, “severely bleached corals have higher mortality rates”, the report said.
Of the 719 reefs surveyed, the report said 654 - or 91%- showed some level of coral bleaching.
The report was published 10 days before Australia’s May 21 federal election, in which climate change policy has emerged as a key issue for voters.
Australia’s 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires and deadly east coast floods that swept away cars and engulfed homes this year have highlighted the country’s growing climate risks.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has, however, resisted calls to make the country’s 2030 emissions reduction target more ambitious, while vowing to mine and export coal for as long as there are buyers.