The Olympics Will be the Ultimate Test for China's Zero-COVID Policy
osting the Olympic Games is a daunting challenge during any year. Add a global pandemic, and the logistics of welcoming the world’s athletes in while keeping the virus out become complicated fast. But China believes its aggressive stance against COVID-19 is up to the task. While the rest of the world is struggling to keep up with the virus, China’s strategy is to stay ahead of it.
While the measures seem extreme, they appear to work, at least according to the latest government COVID-19 tallies, whichfor downplaying the actual impact of the pandemic. If accurate, China’s reported case numbers are “way, way, way lower than what we have in the U.S.,” says Jeremy Luban, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Currently, China has reported just over 5,000 cases in the past month, compared with more than 15 million in the U.S.
There’s a lot at stake for Chinese officials, both politically and from a public-health perspective. Their management of the pandemic will inevitably be compared with the way thejust six months ago, during which 865 reported cases were associated with the Games. If major outbreaks occur during the Olympics, it will be very public proof that a zero-tolerance approach, even a dynamic one, is not the most effective way to control transmission.
Other countries that have adopted zero-COVID strategies, including Australia and New Zealand, were forced to abandon them over the summer and fall. The Delta variant crushed these nations’ efforts to stay on top of cases, and lockdowns became socially unbearable and detrimental to people’s mental health. In accepting that it may not be possible to eliminate SARS-CoV-2, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was time to “come out of the cave.
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