Residents are taking their COVID-19 tests in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on October 13, 2022. /CFP
Residents are taking their COVID-19 tests in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on October 13, 2022. /CFP
The dynamic zero COVID-19 policy adopted by China in the past three years has proven effective and feasible, senior health advisor Liang Wannian told a news conference on Thursday.
"The key idea of 'dynamic zero COVID-19 policy' is to stop community transmission or prevent it from escalating to large-scale outbreaks," said Liang.
Apart from a certain degree of immunity gained from vaccination, Chinese people have not built natural immunity from infection due to China's protection policies, according to Liang.
"Once we relax on the policy and opt out of the 'dynamic zero COVID-19 policy,' we would incur a large number of infections which could lead to deaths of elderly and people with underlying diseases," he added.
"We cannot tolerate a large number of severe cases and deaths, so we must do our best to protect people," Liang said.
He also noted that there're still many uncertainties about the long-term effect of COVID-19 infections or the mutations of the virus, and therefore the 'dynamic zero COVID-19 policy,' which has been proven effective, is best to combat uncertainties.