Photo: Xinhua

China and the US should lift mutual travel restrictions in August or September, as China's infections rate remains extremely low and about 90 percent of the Americans are expected to be vaccinated by that time, possibly becoming the first two countries to do so, Wu Zunyou, Chief Epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC), said on Monday.

Wu mentioned that China is the safest country in the world in terms of COVID-19 prevention, with no community transmission cases reported and the US is likely to vaccinate around 80 percent of its population by June, and 90 percent by August reaching herd immunity. "If that is the case and if we could remove all political barriers, just based on science, the two countries could possibly be the first two countries to lift travel restrictions with each other," Wu said. 

Wu made the remarks while attending an online forum about US-China collaboration on COVID-19 prevention and treatment on Monday evening. The forum was organized by the Washington-based Brookings Institution and Tsinghua University in Beijing. 

During the forum, Gao Fu, director of the CCDC urged China and the US to collaborate on promoting COVAX, furthering scientific research on the origins of coronavirus and working on public health and COVID-19 vaccine sector.