China balancing COVID-19 control, economic growth

BEIJING -- As the Omicron variant has caused COVID-19 resurgences in many parts of China, the country is meeting the challenge with swift and solid action.

President Xi Jinping is directing the latest COVID-19 response with a people-centered philosophy and science-based and targeted approaches. The aim is to rein in the outbreak quickly, while keeping the economy steady and sound.

People-centered, targeted control

In the face of the recent flare-ups, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee convened a meeting on March 17 to arrange for better epidemic control.

All local authorities and government departments should "always put people and their lives first, adhere to the dynamic zero-COVID approach with science-based and targeted measures, and contain the spread of the virus as soon as possible," Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said at the meeting.

China has made people's lives a top priority and kept its COVID-19 infections, severe cases and deaths at a comparatively low level.

Adopting "targeted measures" in COVID-19 control, a requirement laid down by Xi as early as in January 2020, is a key element in China's effective anti-epidemic efforts.

To stop the spread of the virus at the border, the country has adopted differentiated measures from port to port, which include setting up buffer zones and conducting non-contact cargo delivery.

Research and development of vaccines, rapid-testing reagents and medicines advanced steadily. So far, 29 vaccines have entered clinical trials, accounting for 19 percent of the world's total.

A "Great Wall of Immunity" has been built. By March 24, around 1.24 billion people, or nearly 90 percent of the country's total population, had been fully vaccinated in a mass rollout larger and faster than any other country in the world.

To cut transmission chains fast, every provincial-level region is required to have two or three makeshift hospitals that can be erected and put into service in two days.

From diagnosis and treatment protocols to nucleic acid tests, China's response is constantly adjusted to new situations.

The hard efforts make China's dynamic zero-COVID approach, which features "early detection, reporting, quarantine and treatment," possible and effective.

"With early detection and action, we can nip the epidemic in the bud," said Liang Wannian, head of the COVID-19 response expert panel under the National Health Commission.