China rejects WHO’s ‘zero Covid’ stance

BEIJING: China hit back yesterday against what it called “irresponsible” comments by the head of the World Health Organization, who described the country’s uncompromising and increasingly painful “zero Covid” policy as “not sustainable.”

The policy has placed hundreds of millions of people across dozens of cities under various degrees of movement restrictions, most dramatically in Shanghai, causing significant economic damage in China and beyond.

Officials in Shanghai, now in its sixth week under a sweeping lockdown, said half the city had achieved “zero Covid” status, but restrictions would remain in place.