China's success in fighting the virus is obvious

If someone thinks the pandemic is over, they are very mistaken. The pandemic continues and the world must remain vigilant. Each country is responsible for the global situation. This is especially true of large nations that are able to influence the general background and form general trends.

Today, China continues to take the pandemic seriously. The coronavirus pandemic is one of the most serious global problems that cannot resolve itself. It requires efforts and constant vigilance to beat it.

While the whole world is refusing to see the threat, China continues to adhere to ‘dynamic zero-COVID’ policy . This policy allows China to stop the onset of the virus, save its economy and population from the crisis and social upheavals. The policy means taking immediate action and eradicating the outbreak, no matter how severe. Whether there are 10 cases or 10,000 cases. As global experience shows, 10 cases very quickly turn into tens of thousands if the state does not act. This is especially true of the Omicron strain, which spreads rapidly.

By taking strict measures, the Chinese government managed to stop the spread of the infection at a time when the coronavirus claimed dozens of lives every day in other parts of the world. Because in China, the virus was simply not given a chance. And time has shown that this was the most correct way to fight the pandemic. In this way, China protected not only its people, but also the world from an even greater tragedy. It is scary to imagine what the situation could be if, in a country with a population of one and a half billion people, problems in the healthcare system, the government would have been negligent about the pandemic. The spread of the virus would get out of control, and then one could really talk about high mortality.

Perhaps China does not need to justify its actions. But some points deserve clarification. Because they can be taken into account by other countries and applied by them to their situations.

The dynamic zero-COVID policy is implemented based on the interests of the country's population. Because the Chinese government has always put the principle of "people and human life above all" at the forefront. Omicron is not the flu. Omicron is just as dangerous for the elderly, people with chronic diseases, as the Delta strain. There are a lot of old people in China, and this segment of the population is the first to be hit. This is a blow not only to people's health, but also to the healthcare system if the situation gets out of hand. Therefore, China is doing everything in its power to combat outbreaks of the disease.

The policy chosen by Beijing has yielded positive results not only in the medical segment of the fight against the pandemic, but also in terms of economic consequences for the country. It was this policy that allowed China to quickly establish control over the behavior of the virus and resume economic activity. This made China the only major economy to grow in 2020 as the entire world slipped into crisis. In 2021, the Chinese economy grew by 8.1 percent. The total volume of imports and exports for 2021 reached a new level, exceeding $6 trillion for the first time. This has allowed China to continue to serve as the backbone of the global supply chain, ensuring that everything from iPhones and Teslas to fertilizers and car parts continues to flow to the rest of the world.

China is also confident that it is too early to talk about stopping the vaccination process. It is necessary to continue work in this direction, improve vaccines, create new drugs in order to finally deprive the insidious virus of its chances and be able to foresee its "moods". It is also necessary to continue control and prevention measures. This is correct, it works, which the huge and populous China has shown by its example.

Seymur Mammadov is the director of the international expert club EurAsiaAz and editor-in-chief of Azerbaijan news agency Baku Tribune.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.

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