Beijing makes plea for patience over zero-Covid drive
Confidence ‘more important than gold’ in fight against pandemic, People’s Daily editorial says
Citizens should “boost their confidence … and patience” in stringent zero-Covid controls, according to a commentary in yesterday’s Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
“Confidence is more important than gold in the fight against the epidemic … the prevention and control guidelines are effective against the Omicron variant,” the piece said.
It added that China could still achieve early detection, isolation and treatment of Covid-19 even though the stealthy transmission of the virus caused more asymptomatic and mild infections.
The commentary came ahead of the Communist Party’s national congress, which begins on Sunday, and follows a long public holiday that saw a spike in domestic travel as virus cases climbed.
Nearly 2,000 infections were reported on Sunday, with 373 confirmed cases and 1,566 asymptomatic cases.
Frustration has grown ahead of the twice-a-decade national congress, and local governments across the country are doubling down on zero-Covid controls by imposing measures such as pre-emptive lockdowns and bans to prevent coronavirus flare-ups.
Beijing has shown no signs of abandoning its zero-tolerance approach, while many other countries have chosen to live with the virus and loosened restrictions.
But public patience for the strict measures is wearing thin, as sudden lockdowns spark shortages in food and other essential items, while travel and work has been severely disrupted.
Public anger hit a new level after a bus that had been transporting infected residents from the southern city of Guiyang, in Guizhou, to an isolation facility in another city crashed in the middle of the night, killing 27 people.
The newspaper commentary defended the country’s response as “scientific” and “in line with national conditions” as the Omicron variant remained a major threat to the elderly. However, excessive control measures needed to be stopped to boost the public’s confidence and patience, it said.
“We must optimise epidemic prevention and control initiatives, and further improve them to be more scientific, precise and effective to minimise the impact on economic development and the normal life of the public, and to increase confidence and patience in our current epidemic prevention and control policies,” the commentary said.
Local governments are resorting to strict punishment, sometimes even police detention, to deal with control violations.
Authorities in Tongzhou district in the capital Beijing said people who violated home quarantine rules would be sent to extended central isolation at their own expense. “Those who cause the spread of the coronavirus or increase transmission risk will be held accountable according to the law,” a statement said.
A man infected with the Omicron variant BF.7 was under investigation in Shaoguan, Guangdong province, on Sunday after he spat on a street while not wearing a mask. That resulted in several other people being infected, “posing a significant transmission risk across the city”, authorities said.
We must optimise [Covid] prevention and control initiatives, and ... be more scientific
PEOPLE’S DAILY COMMENTARY