As China eases curbs, unjabbed elderly in focus
BEIJING: China’s decision to delay vaccinating senior citizens to focus on frontline workers during its initial inoculation drives could prove costly as the country gradually eases the ‘zero-covid’ policy, potentially exposing millions among the vulnerable elderly to the virus.
Several major cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, the southern cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and Hangzhou in the east have eased or easing requirements of the two-tothree-day negative Covid test results needed to access public transport or enter malls.
By the end of 2021, China had 267 million people aged 60 and above, or 18.9% of the total population while those aged 65 and above accounted for over 14% of the population, official media reported earlier this year.
China opened Covid-19 vaccination for older adults in April 2021, months after it started vaccinating frontline workers in
July 2020. Last week, the national health commission announced a new push to vaccinate the elderly population.
“All countries in the world that have emerged from the epidemic have reached a consensus on the protection of the elderly population,” Zhang Wenhong, a leading infectious diseases expert in China was quoted as saying in the staterun, China Daily newspaper.
Low percentage of vaccination among the elderly is a reason for China’s stringent Covid controls, indicated Katherine Mason, a leading medical anthropologist who has worked on China’s health policies, and who said that it is definitely a possibility that the country could see a surge in infections among the elderly after the easing of restrictions.