China won't relax Covid-19 policies but will keep improving them: Govt expert
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Residents talk to pandemic prevention workers in an apartment that was under lockdown in Beijing on Nov 9, 2022.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BEIJING - China will not relax its Covid-19 measures but will keep improving them according to the changing epidemic situation and mutation of the virus, and will be more scientifically accurate in their implementation, a disease expert said.
China is very cautious in every adjustment it makes in its Covid-19 policies, the National Health Commission said on Friday, citing researcher Wang Liping from the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
In its first meeting since being formed last month after the ruling Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress, the Politburo Standing Committee said China’s epidemic prevention measures must not be relaxed,
During the meeting, chaired by President Xi Jinping, the members called for “more decisive” measures to control the virus and resume normal life and production as soon as possible, according to Xinhua News Agency. The Covid-19 situation “remains severe” as cases keep emerging, they said.
China’s daily Covid-19 infections exceeded 10,000 for the first time since April, with Beijing’s cases at the highest level in more than a year, as the country’s top leaders urged more targeted restrictions aimed at controlling the virus.
The capital reported 114 new cases for Thursday, the municipal health commission said. Four of the infections were found outside the government-run quarantine system, stoking concern the virus continues to circulate within the community. Nationwide, there were 10,243 new infections, the highest since April 28.
Neighbourhoods and apartment blocks in the populous Chaoyang district have been locked down this week, with some schools also suspended.
Guangzhou reported 225 new locally transmitted symptomatic and 2,358 asymptomatic cases, compared with 125 symptomatic and 2,430 asymptomatic cases a day before, the authorities in the city of nearly 19 million people said.
The Haizhu district extended its lockdown to Sunday, local authorities said in a notice on their WeChat account REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
