Expert says China able to beat Omicron

Highlighting the danger and deadliness of Omicron, especially for the elderly population, a senior health expert stressed that China is capable of dynamically clearing Omicron infections and called on the entire country to stay confident and persevere to fight against the novel coronavirus.

The fatality rate of Omicron among people aged 80 and above is higher than 10 percent, nearly 100 times that of influenza flu, Liang Wannian, the nation's head of the National Health Commission's virus response task force, said on Friday.

For the general population, the Omicron strain's rate of mortality stands at around 0.75 percent, nearly eight times higher than that of flu at around 0.1 percent, he said during an interview with China Central Television.

"We should not treat the Omicron strain as a larger size of flu," he said. "If we relax our disease control measures, the virus will lead to a large number of severe cases and deaths."

The high transmissibility of Omicron further magnifies its threat. "Without protective methods in place, a person infected with the variant can spread it to 9.5 people, on average," he said.

Liang said the leadership of China will not allow such a heavy toll to happen in the country.

"The strict implementation of dynamic zero-COVID strategy is aimed at reducing or preventing harm that will be brought by the virus, so as to ensure social and economic development as much as possible," he said.

Liang added that this approach does not seek to completely eradicate the novel coronavirus or prevent new outbreaks at present. Rather, it calls for measures to stem out new infections in the shortest possible time.

"This strategy also buys time for us to deepen understanding of the virus, expand vaccination and research on more effective drugs," he added.

Liang stressed that China is capable of dynamically clearing Omicron infections and called on the entire country to stay confident and persevere to fight against the virus.

The Chinese mainland registered 2,119 confirmed COVID-19 infections and 16,383 asymptomatic cases on Thursday, according to the National Health Commission.