The head of the World Health Organization said China’s extreme approach to containing the coronavirus is untenable due to the highly contagious nature of the Omicron version, but it is up to each country to decide which policy to pursue.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described China’s “zero-Covid” strategy as “not sustainable”, after similar remarks last week drew sharp criticism from China.
“We know the virus better and we have better tools, including vaccines, so the way we deal with the virus really needs to be different from what we used to do at the beginning of the pandemic,” Tedros said. He said the virus had changed significantly since it was first identified in Wuhan in late 2019, when China halted its spread with a massive lockdown.
Tedros said the WHO had repeatedly advised Chinese officials about their recommended COVID containment strategies, but that “with regard to the choice of their policies, it is up to each country to make that choice.”
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China’s ruthless and often chaotic implementation of zero-Covid has led to much outrage and food shortages in Shanghai, where some residents have been under lockdown for more than a month.
WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan said the agency recognized that China had recently faced a difficult situation with COVID-19 and commended the authorities for keeping the number of deaths at a very low level. .
“We understand why China’s initial response was an attempt to suppress the infection to the maximum level (but) that the strategy is not sustainable and other elements of the strategic response need to be enhanced,” he said. Ryan said vaccination efforts should continue and stressed that “repression strategies alone are not a sustainable way for any country to come out of the pandemic.”
WHO chief Tedros also said that the agency is trying to persuade North Korea and Eritrea to start Covid-19 vaccinations.
“WHO is very concerned about the risk of further outbreaks in[North Korea],” Tedros said, noting that the population is uninsured and there are a worrying number of people with underlying conditions that put them at risk of serious illness.
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Tedros said the WHO has asked North Korea to share more data about the outbreak there – which state media has reported affecting more than 1 million people – but has yet to respond. Is. He said the WHO had offered to send vaccines, medicines, tests and technical assistance to both North Korea and Eritrea, but neither country’s leader has yet responded.
Ryan said any uncontrolled transmission in countries such as North Korea and Eritrea could prompt the emergence of new forms, but that the WHO was powerless to act until countries accepted its help.
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