Beijing still in ‘ tug of war’ against Omicron

▶ Infections in communities cleared for 1st time after 8 rounds of screening

Over the past weekend, Beijing reported a total of 137 domestically transmitted COVID- 19 infections. Yet, a piece of great news is being highlighted by experts amid the virus- hit capital’s weeks- long tug- of- war against Omicron – on Sunday, the city saw no new infections at the community level for the first time after eight rounds of mass nucleic acid screening.

But the Beijing municipal government still reminded the public that the number of infections per day is still high and there is a risk of sporadic cases circulating in communities. “At present, the prevention and control of the epidemic in Beijing is at a critical moment, which requires effort,” Beijing municipal government spokesman Xu Hejian said at a press briefing on Sunday.

Since April 25, Beijing has held eight rounds of regionwide mass nucleic acid tests. Although Beijing has been implementing timely risk controls for the infected population and close contacts, infections at the community level emerging daily have been reported, and were considered by experts to be a hindrance to Beijing’s rapid quelling of the outbreak.

On Sunday, Beijing reported zero cases at the community level for the first time in the past two weeks.

“It is a very good sign that there are no new confirmed cases in the community screening outside the control area,” a Chinese CDC expert told the Global Times on condition of anonymity on Sunday. “It means that the epidemic prevention situation in the city is getting better and the spread of the epidemic will be gradually controlled.”

“If this clearance is sustained in the coming days, it indicates that Beijing has reached a relatively good balance between epidemic prevention and control, residents’ livelihoods, and economic and social development at this time,” the expert said.

Convenient and high- frequency nucleic acid testing is the key to containing the latest outbreak, noted the anonymous CDC expert. “As the outbreak is caused by the Omicron variant, patients don’t generally show serious symptoms. It is difficult to detect infections without large- scale nucleic acid testing.”

Beijing has seen few serious cases or deaths in the current round of the outbreak, most notably because the scope of infection is very limited and high- risk groups have not been infected, experts noted.

Health experts also refuted suggestions that China’s epidemic control measures are inadequate against Omicron or are too costly to the economy and people’s livelihoods.

Beijing is now adopting an active response strategy to the virus, with about a dozen cases being reported each day. For the Omicron outbreak, that number is quite small, Wang Guangfa, a Beijing- based respiratory specialist, told the Global Times.

“Without such a strategy, the number of new cases could run up to thousands or tens of thousands. The number of infections in vulnerable populations would increase dramatically,” he said. “This is unacceptable to the general public in China.”