Dear Editor,
Recently, the loosening “zero covid” policy in China received widespread attention, with the announcement of “10 New Covid Rules” (including allowing home quarantine and largely scrapping the health QR code, etc.), [1] and medical experts frequently expressed the viewpoint of viruses evolve and weaken over time in order to guide public opinion to change, everything seems to be going forward to a positive direction.
However, this change is based more on saving China’s already endangered economic situation than the central government’s intention to abandon the “zero covid” policy after being touched by protests. [2, 3] Chinese government received wide criticism for its “zero covid” policy and the over-enforcement on the local governments level within the country and abroad for a long time. Although the central government has tried to make changes, there is still a big question mark on how local governments will implement them. In the “10 New Covid Rules”, the public is required to minimize the nucleic acid tests, and the government has also reduced the number of test points, but the actual situation is that a 48-hour negative certificate is still required to enter most public places. [4] Foreign mRNA vaccines are still rejected while it underlined the need to accelerate vaccination rates, especially for senior citizens. Optimizing isolation measures has also been mentioned, however, mobile cabin hospitals are still under construction in full swing in various cities, and there are frequent cases of deliberate fabrication of false positive test results and recruitment of patients with false positives, to defraud the central financial subsidies. [5] The attitudes and practices of the central government and local governments towards the epidemic seem to be in two separate worlds.
The strict “zero covid” policy and the unspoken rule of new cases in the area will affect local officials’ political future since the beginning of the epidemic, which may be the reason behind and its effect continues to the present day. Although China’s central government has increasingly strengthened social control in recent years, it still lacks a scientific attitude and leadership in formulating and implementing epidemic control strategies. Shijiazhuang, a big city in north China, tried to open up for three days after the last “20 measures” were announced, and then quickly switched back to the mass testing regimes. [6] If the central government and local governments cannot maintain consistency, the “10 New Covid Rules” may cause another contradiction and confusion. Nevertheless, this change in policy offers a glimmer of hope that the Chinese government can take a small step toward scientifically rational coexistence with the covid-19.
Zhi Qu, Zhong Huang, Dong Qu
REFERENCES
1 Millson A (2022). These Are the 10 New Covid Rules China Will Follow on Path to Reopening. Bloomberg, 7 December 2022. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-07/these-are-the-10-new-… Accessed December 09, 2022.
2 Dyer O. Covid-19: Protests against lockdowns in China reignite amid crackdown. bmj 2022;379:o2896. doi:10.1136/bmj.o2896 [published Online First: 30 November 2022].
3 (2022). China’s economy loses momentum as COVID curbs hit factories, consumers. Reuters Media, 15 November 2022. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-factory-output-retail-sales-m… Accessed December 09, 2022.
4 Cheng E (2022). China signals slight Covid policy easing — but don’t expect sweeping changes yet. CNBC, 1 December 2022. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/01/china-signals-slight-covid-policy-easing… Accessed December 09, 2022.
5 Cheng E (2022). Wrong Covid test results in China raise concerns ‘the pandemic may never end’. CNBC, 2 December 2022. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/02/china-people-worry-wrong-covid-test-resu… Accessed December 09, 2022.
6 Mcmorrow R, Liu N (2022). ‘We’ve totally confused residents’: China’s Covid policy flip-flop stokes frustration. Financial Times, 23 November 2022. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/a0e3d8ea-be6c-4c84-b8f9-4ac81dff5fa5 Accessed December 09, 2022.
Re: Covid-19: Protests against lockdowns in China reignite amid crackdown