BEIJING, 21 March 2022:
An expert at China’s National Health Commission warned against treating Covid-19 – linked to the highly transmissible omicron variant of the coronavirus – like a seasonal flu, state media Global Times reported today.
In an interview with state broadcaster CCTV, Liang Wannian, head of the Covid-19 response expert panel under the commission, said that while the proportion of patients with severe symptoms is decreasing, the fast transmission rate of the omicron variant can lead to a high number of infections in a short period of time – which would mean the number of deaths and severe cases in absolute terms would also be high.
In the expert’s opinion, China’s “good” efforts in preventing and controlling the virus and the “misunderstanding” that the pandemic is over has caused some local governments and people to “relax their efforts in the fight against Covid-19.”
Liang said “it is not the right time” to abandon the country’s existing strategy to tackle the virus as doing so would render the achievements of the past two years “useless.”
China continues to implement the “dynamic zero-case” policy against Covid-19, which includes the almost total closure of borders, the isolation of all those infected and their close contacts, and restrictions on movement and large-scale PCR tests wherever a case is detected.
This strategy, Liang described, “proved to be effective” in “protecting the lives of people” and has ”helped to strike a balance between epidemic prevention and economic development.”
“The pandemic is far from being over,” said the expert, citing the example of the recent outbreaks in most of China’s provinces.
The recent outbreak in the northeastern region of Jilin is the largest since the first outbreak of the virus in Wuhan in early 2020.
China yesterday detected 1,947 new Covid-19 infections and 2,384 asymptomatic cases – not included in the official count -, according to data provided by the National Health Commission today.
A total of 132,226 people have been infected in the country since the start of the pandemic, out of which 106,200 have recovered and 4,638 have died, according to the commission.
Since March 1, more than 20,000 local infections have been detected in China along with another 17,700 asymptomatic cases – which are not included in the official count – as well as the first two deaths due to the coronavirus since January 2021.
Meanwhile, Shanghai’s Disney theme park closed its doors temporarily today due to a surge in Covid-19 infections in the city and in the rest of the country.
“Due to the current pandemic situation, Shanghai Disney Resort, including Shanghai Disneyland, Disneytown and Wishing Star Park will be temporarily closed from Monday, March 21, 2022,” the park said in a statement posted on its website.
“We will continue to monitor the pandemic situation and consult local authorities, and will notify guests as soon as we have a confirmed date to resume operations.”
Shanghai Disneyland also apologised for the inconvenience caused and said it will provide refunds and exchanges to all those who were planning to visit the park in the coming days.
A total of 758 Covid-19 cases were detected in Shanghai yesterday, out of which 734 are asymptomatic, according to the latest data provided by the local health commission.
Several areas in Shanghai where close contacts of the infected have been detected have been locked down in accordance with the “2 + 12” principle, which consists of two days of strict home confinement and another 12 of monitoring during which several tests are conducted.
– EFE