The World Health Organization welcomed this Friday the easing of the anti-Covid strategy in China, after the demonstrations of anger against the zero covid policy of the authorities.
“We are glad to know that the Chinese authorities are adjusting their current strategies and really trying to calibrate now the control measures for this virus that they need for people’s lives, livelihoods and human rights,” said Dr. Michael Ryan from WHO ER. Manager, at a regular press conference in Geneva.
“It’s really important that governments listen to their people when people are suffering. We really want to see this adjustment happen and accelerate,” insisted Dr Ryan.
A rare mobilization in the country
Chinese anger at the health hardline in fighting the pandemic had spilled over into the streets this past weekend, a mobilization on a scale unprecedented in decades.
Authorities reacted quickly by increasing police presence and reinforcing monitoring of social media.
At the same time, several cities have started to ease restrictions, such as abandoning mass daily testing, a tedious mainstay of life below zero-Covid, in place for nearly three years.
“More flexibility” possible
On Friday, President Xi Jinping – who has imposed the zero covid policy until then – argued that the less lethal Omicron variant of the virus allows “more flexibility” in restrictions.
Dr Ryan insisted that the unprecedented transmissibility of the Omicron variant of the virus that causes covid has made zero covid policies more or less meaningless and may have worked with earlier variants or even the original strain.
“It’s really hard to stop and it goes through your fingers very, very quickly,” he said, adding that “you have to try to protect the most vulnerable. When you can’t stop a fire, we keep endangered people away.” And the way to keep people away from fire in this case is to vaccinate them.”
WHO urges caution
For his part, the director general of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned once again of the danger that a pandemic that has not ended continues to represent.
“We are much closer to being able to say that the emergency phase of the pandemic is over, but we are not there yet,” he said during the press conference.
“Gaps in surveillance, testing, sequencing, and vaccination continue to create the perfect conditions for the emergence of a worrisome new variant,” he warned.
Source: BFM TV
