Shanghai reaffirms ‘zero-COVID’; WHO says not sustainable

Shanghai reaffirmed China’s strict "zero-COVID” approach to pandemic control on Wednesday, a day after the head of the World Health Organization said that was not sustainable and urged China to change strategies.

While China’s largest city has seen progress in controlling the COVID-19 outbreak, any relaxation in prevention and control measures could allow it to rebound, deputy director of Shanghai’s Center for Disease Control Wu Huanyu told reporters.

"At the same time, now is also the most difficult and critical moment for our city to achieve zero-COVID," Wu said at a daily briefing.

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"Should we relax our vigilance, the epidemic may rebound, so it is necessary to persistently implement the prevention and control work without relaxing,” he said.

Wu gave no indication he was aware of the comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said he had been holding discussions with Chinese experts on the need to transition to a new approach in light of new knowledge about the virus.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a meeting. File photo

"When we talk about the ‘zero-COVID,' we don’t think that it’s sustainable, considering the behavior of the virus now and what we anticipate in the future," Tedros said at a news briefing Tuesday.

"And especially when we have now a good knowledge, understanding of the virus and when we have good tools to use, transitioning to another strategy will be very important," he said.

Tedros was joined by Mike Ryan, the WHO's emergencies chief, who said all pandemic control actions should "show due respect to individual and human rights."

Countries need to "balance the control measures, the impact on society, the impact on the economy. That is not always an easy calibration to make," Ryan said.

China's ruling Communist Party has strictly controlled all discussion about its controversial approach, which aims to totally stamp out outbreaks, and said it would tolerate no criticism. The entirely state-controlled media did not report on the comments by Tedros and Ryan and references to them on the Chinese internet appeared to have been removed by censors.

Associated Press