蜜芽传媒

It's less than three weeks until the start of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, and China shows no signs of abandoning its tough 'zero Covid' policy. Spectators at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing will be told they are allowed to clap but not cheer or chant to avoid spreading the virus. But the Games come as the authorities try to combat a series of outbreaks of the highly infectious Omicron variant. The northern city of Xian has been in total lockdown for a couple of weeks, and Beijing itself has just reported its first locally transmitted case of Omicron, with all travelers to the city now required to get a test within 72 hours of arrival.聽

Lynette Ong, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, says the Chinese government is determined to continue the policy as the issue is seen as one of social stability as well as public health and that there are fears of outbreaks in the rural population. She says scientists have also found that the Chinese vaccines are not as effective as the mRNA vaccines developed elsewhere, so making it even more important to prevent a mass outbreak, and that the policy may well continue until the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party that will be held in the autumn of this year, when it could be re-evaluated.

Photo: Workers wearing protective suits arrive to a building under lockdown in Hong Kong Credit: Reuters