[Governments across the world have been wrestling with how to balance reopening with the delta variant, which can severely sicken the unvaccinated and be transmitted even among the vaccinated.]
By Rebecca Tan and Alicia
Chen
Since the start of the pandemic,
China has embraced a stringent approach to containing the coronavirus, sealing off entire cities and tightly
controlling borders to keep infection rates down.
Officials borrowed from the same
playbook when a cluster of cases recently emerged in the eastern city of
Nanjing, placing 9.3 million residents in semi-lockdown. Nearly all in-person
commercial and social activity was suspended and neighborhoods considered
high-risk were cordoned off. Taxis were told not to leave the city, and
residents were subject to mass testing.
[China
sets back search for covid origins with rejection of WHO investigation proposal]
But as coronavirus cases continued
to pop up this week in other cities as a result of the highly contagious delta
variant, driving new infections in China to a six-month high, some experts have
suggested the need for a shift in strategy.
“The Nanjing outbreak has prompted
a national stress test and serves as food for thought for the future of our
pandemic response,” said Zhang Wenhong, an infectious-disease specialist often regarded as China’s Anthony S. Fauci, in a
statement Thursday.
He warned that if the outbreak,
which has been linked to 177 cases as of Thursday, worsens significantly, “more
decisive measures may be needed.” And he urged people to continue strictly
adhering to precautions like mask-wearing and staying at home. But in a break
from China’s official tack, Zhang also acknowledged that the country needs eventually
to learn how to live with the virus.
“Whether we like it or not, there
will always be risks ahead,” he said. “Every country is figuring out their own
answers for how to live with the virus. China once produced a beautiful answer
sheet, and after the Nanjing outbreak, we will have more to learn.”
Governments across the world have
been wrestling with how to balance reopening with the delta variant, which can
severely sicken the unvaccinated and be transmitted even among the vaccinated.
Parts of Europe have reopened to
vaccinated travelers but reinstated domestic restrictions. Singapore said it
would be shifting into a new pandemic normal, then sharply changed course when
infections erupted at karaoke lounges and a large fishery port.
In China, whose leaders have
repeatedly touted the superiority of its zero-tolerance approach at home and
abroad, leaders have found themselves in a growing dilemma of how to move
forward. More than half of China’s population has been fully vaccinated,
although the country’s top epidemiologist said it will take at least 80 percent
to reach herd immunity.
[WHO
clarifies details of early covid patients in Wuhan after errors in virus report]
“I don’t think China is going to
change its zero-tolerance approach. They’ve always set zero as their goal,”
said Dong-Yan Jin, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong. Some countries
are trying to evolve away from zero-tolerance, he said, citing Singapore, but
it’s not clear whether China can safely do so given questions about the
efficacy of its main vaccines, from Sinopharm and Sinovac.
And yet, it doesn’t seem like
China’s existing strategies are sustainable, said Yanzhong Huang, a senior
fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “What is
interesting about Nanjing is that it clearly shows that with the delta variant,
China’s playbook has diminishing returns,” he said.
The outbreak started in Nanjing’s
Lukou International Airport, where the vast majority of employees are
vaccinated, local officials said. Cases linked to Lukou have been detected in
at least 13 cities in seven provinces, although according to officials, only a
handful of those cases have been severe. No deaths have been reported.
Huang said there is a growing set
of public health experts and policy scholars that is beginning to question the
wisdom of the government’s draconian approach, and some people have said for
months that having zero infections in a country as large as China is
unrealistic.
But after a year of decrying the
more liberal approach taken by the United States as “immoral,” “irresponsible” and “unacceptable,” Chinese
political leaders face a dilemma.
“If you basically abandon the
zero-tolerance strategy … you need an explanation for why you decided to trash
that other approach,” Huang said. “It’s now more a political than a public
health consideration.”
[From
Wuhan to Paris to Milan, the search for ‘patient zero’]
He added that, in enforcing its
pandemic approach, China’s leaders have created a system that is rather
“sticky.” Unlike in the United States, where local and state officials have
largely taken charge of pandemic restrictions — causing an ever-changing patchwork
of different policies — city and provincial bureaucrats in China have operated
primarily on a central set of guidelines from which they aren’t likely to stray
in the near future.
The commitment to zero-tolerance is
strong even among some residents, who have come to associate it with a sense of
safety, Huang said.
Since Nanjing was placed into a
semi-lockdown, some users on the microblogging site Weibo have expressed
frustration with the new rules, but even more have scolded the government for
not taking more dramatic action.
“Why aren’t they sealing off the
city!!!” one user ranted on Wednesday as reports rolled in of new infections.
“I really don’t understand what the Nanjing government is doing.”
Lyric Li contributed to this
report.
Read more
China
sets back search for covid origins with rejection of WHO investigation proposal
WHO
clarifies details of early covid patients in Wuhan after errors in virus report
From
Wuhan to Paris to Milan, the search for ‘patient zero’