Is China on the way to easing its zero-COVID stance?
December 1 marked the official third anniversary of the first recorded COVID case in Wuhan, China.
Vaccination
China rolls out campaign to increase vaccination rates for its elderly population
The country wants to boost vaccination rates among the elderly.
China reveals that President Xi has been vaccinated against COVID
Despite China’s strict lockdown policies in line with its zero-COVID stance, the country can’t quite squash out the highly contagious and transmissible coronavirus. On Saturday, China recorded nearly 1,000 COVID cases across the country, with the majority of its cases in the northwestern province of Gansu and
Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam says her biggest regret was not vaccinating more people earlier
In an interview with Bloomberg TV on Tuesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said that her biggest regret from her time as the city’s leader was its lag in a strong vaccination effort, leading to a spike in deaths and cases, which ultimately led to the city’s
Hong Kong’s restrictions ease while researchers say half of population has already caught COVID
The previous challenge with the mainland’s zero-COVID stance was that very few people in the country had the natural immunity your body builds after catching the virus. On top of that, the Western world was skeptical about how effective Chinese vaccines are. It wasn’t until recently that the
Hong Kong sees over 7,500 cases, contact tracing app now flagging unvaccinated users
The backstory:
* Hong Kong is aiming for a “dynamic zero infection” situation, which, according to state-backed media outlet Xinhua news agency, does not mean trying to get to zero cases. Instead, it aims to identify new infections as early as possible so that the virus can be contained.
* But despite
China warns of 2 million deaths per year if it reopens
The backstory:
* We have mentioned that Hong Kong and the mainland have a strict no COVID-19 policy, which has put Hong Kong on the receiving end of a fair bit of scrutiny, especially from the business community.
* But this approach has also gotten the mainland some criticism, especially recently as