Commentary: China chooses to fight the virus while shielding the vulnerable

Photo taken on April 12, 2022 shows the interior view of a makeshift hospital converted from the National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC) in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)

BEIJING, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Facing the continued threat of the pandemic, China has stuck to its dynamic zero-COVID policy in tackling resurgences to protect the lives and health of its people, instead of choosing to "live with" the virus as some countries have done.

Around the globe, the number of COVID-19 cases has surpassed 500 million, with 6.18 million deaths, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The staggering numbers continue rising.

Having successfully tamed a number of sporadic cluster infections in different cities over the past two years, China is struggling to contain the latest Omicron resurgences with swift, strict and targeted control measures. Shanghai, with a population of 25 million, has reported over 10,000 new infection cases daily for the past nine days.

Despite the mounting difficulties to contain the evolving, more transmissible and concealed virus, the country shall defeat it with action and determination. It will never give up on protecting the lives of its citizens. Trying to "live with the virus," or a "lie-flat" approach, "tangping" in Chinese, which relies solely on vaccination instead of other prevention measures, is not a choice for China.

A medical worker from east China's Anhui Province takes a swab sample from a resident for nucleic acid test at a community in Huangpu District of Shanghai, east China, April 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

Can such a method realistically succeed? The answer will come out from the fact that global death figures confirm this is no ordinary seasonal flu we are dealing with, and the threat is compounded for the elderly and those with chronic conditions.

Thus a "lie-flat" approach is in truth choosing to sacrifice the vulnerable to the virus. This measure is little more than a rebranding of the law of the jungle, where only the strongest survive.

China will not and cannot adopt such a defeatist and Darwinian method. Instead, the country is firmly implementing its dynamic zero-COVID policy, the best option that has stood the test of controlling domestic epidemic outbreaks. China's approach minimizes the cost of the pandemic rather than abandoning the frail to a miserable fate and protects people to the maximum extent.

Of course this dynamic zero-COVID policy is a reflection of the Chinese government's people-centered development philosophy.

All 1.4 billion Chinese citizens, including 267 million aged 60 and above and more than 250 million children, know their protection remains paramount.

China remains confident that this fight too will be won, its battle-hardened battalions having successfully fought back one cluster after another over the past two years, never accepting defeat.

In line with the dynamic zero-COVID approach, China's epidemic control measures that take into consideration the new features of the virus, and its continued vaccination efforts for the big elder population, will certainly guarantee new success.

The "lie-flat" approach has resulted in significant growth in infections and deaths in some countries, highlighting its consequences. When it comes to the COVID-19, the choice is clear, and thus China fights on.