China to continue Covid curbs as outbreaks grow

BEIJING: China will continue to implement strict Covid-19 control measures and a “zero tolerance” policy towards infections because it is necessary against the backdrop of the pandemic situation overseas and in neighbouring countries, a top health official said on Saturday.

“At present, the novel coronavirus’s spread around the globe, and especially in China’s neighbouring countries, is unstable and rampant, and the domestic epidemic situation remains complicated and severe this winter and spring,” said Wu Liangyou, deputy director of the national health commission’s (NHC).

“We will continue to enforce strict virus control measures, solidifying the defence against imported cases and local flareups, and consolidate our hardwon outcomes in stemming the virus,” China Daily newspaper reported, quoting the top health official.

It effectively rules out any opening of the country’s borders to allow normal international travel from overseas in the foreseeable future.

Wu did not name neighbouring India, but health officials have said all the recent outbreaks in China have been caused by the Delta variant of Covid, which was first detected in India earlier this year.

The strict policy will continue despite China having fully vaccinated nearly 76% of its 1.4 billion population against Covid. It has administered 1.072 billion vaccines until Friday, the NHC said.

A total of 37.97 million people in China have also received a third booster dose of the vaccine as of Friday, Wu said, adding that 2.3 billion doses of the vaccine had been administered by day’s end on Friday, an increase of about 8.9 million from the previous day.

China is currently scrambling to control the latest Covid-19 outbreak, which has spread to 44 cities in 20 provinces and resulted in 918 confirmed infections since October 17.

Oz hits 80% vaccination rate in new milestone Australia hit its target of having 80% of people aged 16 and older fully vaccinated against Covid-19, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, as the country shifts from a strict containment policy to living with the virus as endemic.

“We did it!” Morrison wrote in a Facebook post. “It’s going to help us to continue to safely reopen and stay safely open.”

Australia’s two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, eased their tough lockdown measures in recent weeks after hitting a 70% inoculation threshold, allowing residents to eat at restaurants and reopening schools.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s 206 new daily community infections on Saturday carried it past the double-hundred mark for the first time during the pandemic.

The most populous city of Auckland, which reported 200 of the new cases, has lived under Covid-19 curbs for nearly three months.