Futile slandering of nation's fight with virus: China Daily editorial

The claims of some Western media that China's adjustment of its COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control policy equals "inaction" do not hold water at all.

There is no doubt that China has tried its best to cushion the shocks coming from the wave of mass infections — which no country has escaped or can avoid — and has minimized their influence on the recovery of socioeconomic activities.

Indeed, the government's to-do list is even longer than before. Since it is prioritizing the most vulnerable who become infected — that is mainly the elderly with underlying health conditions — it has to ensure care is delivered in a more targeted and prompt way.

China has more than 240 million people aged 60 and above, larger than that of all developed economies combined. Although the vaccination rate of this group has reached about 90 percent, one of the highest in the world, that means there are still about 25 million people in this vulnerable group who remain unvaccinated against the virus.

That medical care and supplies, especially intensive medical care, have been unable to keep pace with the demand, within a short time, has been inevitable given the contagiousness of the dominant virus variants and the fact that the medical staff have unavoidably borne the brunt of the virus in the first wave of infections thanks to the nature of their jobs.

Yet despite this, public health institutions have sustained their operation during the most difficult time over the past three weeks, and the capacity of the intensive medical care in many cities has expanded rapidly thanks to the governments' huge input.

As of last weekend, the shortage of medical care resources began being eased with the remarkable increase of sickbeds, more medical staff resuming their duties after recovery and the gradual decline of infections.

That is something hard to come by were it not for the close coordination among the government, public health agencies and society, the dedication of medical workers and couriers to doing their jobs, and the stepped-up operation of all pharmaceutical companies and enterprises producing essential medical supplies and life necessities.

All these efforts have been necessary for the nation to cope with this wave and will ensure it is better able to ride out future waves of the virus.

Given all this, the adjustment of the virus control measures came at the right time, as it not only sets the stage for the take-off of the economy after a short period of shocks, but also enables the country to concentrate its limited medical care resources on caring for the most vulnerable among its huge population.

Shame on those trying to belittle and slander the nation's efforts. Whatever they may claim to the contrary, the most populous country in the world has never stopped doing all it can to save lives. Because of that, it has one of the lowest COVID death rates in the world.