Photo: CFP

 
If China prepares adequately by using the window period created by dynamic zero, the country will surely defeat the COVID-19 epidemic, Liang Wannian, head of the COVID-19 response expert panel under the National Health Commission (NHC), said on Friday.

China will triumph over the virus when conditions are ready, Lian noted. When China will achieve high vaccination coverage, especially for the elderly and other vulnerable groups, medical resources such as isolation beds, effective medicines and emergency protocols will be effectively prepared, and the virus will become mild then death risks become bearable, he said.  

From a global perspective, different countries' strategies and measures against the epidemic are based on the concept of prevention and control, and China's concept is people first and life first. This is why the country has kept adhering to the dynamic zero policy and consistently improved and optimized the prevention and control measures, Liang said.

"It can be said that through our efforts, we have effectively protected people from the harm of diseases caused by infections from the so-called herd immunity and natural immunity. We protect most people's health and life security as well as the normal production, life and economic development of a vast area," he noted.

"If we make more efforts, especially to increase the vaccination rate of vulnerable groups such as the elderly and children, then we will build a controllable active immune barrier. We think it is better than uncontrollable passive immunity," he said. "Under such a circumstance, China must adhere to the general policy of dynamic zero."

As of April 28, a total of 3,340,711,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been taken in China. More than 1.28 billion people have received the vaccines, with more than 1.24 billion being fully vaccinated, accounting for 91.14 percent and 88.64 percent of China's total population respectively, Lei Zhenglong, deputy head of the NHC's Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control, said at the press conference. According to Lei, more than 750 million people in China have taken booster shots. Over 215 million citizens over 60 have taken the COVID-19 vaccines, accounting for 81.94 percent of the elderly population. More than 160 million elderly people have taken booster shots, Lei said.

Global Times