The Irish Times view on Covid-19 in China: holding to zero Covid

Yesterday the Chinese authorities announced that the city of Yuzhou in Henan province (population 1.2 million) will join western Xi'an in Shaanxi (13 million) in lockdown. Beijing is determined to maintain its "zero Covid" policy of stamping out the disease whenever it appears, and at any cost.

It is one of the last countries in the world still pursuing such a policy, but has been successful at keeping cases to a minimum since its first outbreak was detected in Wuhan in 2020. Official figures show swift lockdowns have limited total cases to just over 100,000 since the start of the pandemic.

A video of the city's pandemic prevention workers beating a resident for leaving his apartment to buy food went viral on social media last week

In Xi’an residents have been kept at home for the past two weeks, medical care limited to those with negative tests, and households required to designate one person to collect essential supplies once every other day. A video of the city’s pandemic prevention workers beating a resident for leaving his apartment to buy food went viral on social media last week. The authorities have, however, promised to respond to wide food shortages.

In southern Guangxi, people who broke Covid laws were recently publicly shamed by being paraded through the streets in Hazmat suits with placards round their necks.

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A key aspect of the policy is border closures with few allowed in or out of China, and those who do enter the country facing up to three weeks of enforced quarantine. Vietnam has complained of the build-up of 6,000 lorries on its border.

The strategy appears to observers to be as much politically driven as health-policy-inspired, with the authorities apparently deeply concerned that February’s Winter Olympics, already restricted to athletes, and the autumn 20th Party Congress, expected to extend Xi Jinping’s hold on power, will not be overshadowed by the pandemic. Scientists warn, however, that the country and its health system may also be particularly vulnerable to any relaxation. Paradoxically, China’s relative success in keeping the virus at bay means lower natural immunity in the population, while medical staff have less experience treating the sick.