Top China Covid Expert Hints at How Sealed Off Country May Return to ‘Normality’
- Fatalities from virus would need to fall to 0.1% rate: Zhong
- Reproduction rate also needs to fall, Zhong says: GT
A residential area in Shanghai under lockdown on Dec. 2.
Photographer: AFP/Getty Images
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China’s top health expert identified two conditions for the country to return to “normality,” and maintained that authorities should stick to their Covid Zero policy in battling the omicron variant.
Prerequisites for getting back to normal include fatalities from Covid-19 needing to fall to a rate of 0.1% -- similar to influenza’s -- said Zhong Nanshan, who heads China’s Covid task force, according to the state-backed Global Times. That’s still a far-off target, as the global death rate stands at over 1.9%.