Passengers walk through New York stock exchange. Photo: CNSphoto

The US-led Western media are relentlessly attacking China over its "dynamic zero-COVID" policy and exaggerating the impact on China's economy, but Chinese analysts said ironically, the US has nothing to show for it on both counts - 1 million Americans have died of the pandemic, while the virus is still wreaking havoc in the country and the US economy is contracting this year.

Although the Omicron variant has brought challenges to China and has led to a spike in confirmed cases, compared to the US situation, the impact on China is still relatively small and controllable. China's success is a result of its firm execution of the "dynamic zero-COVID" strategy, as the country tries to control both the pandemic and its impact on the economy. 

It is unlikely the United States will ever eliminate COVID-19, top US infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said, adding that the nation should strive to control the virus and get out of the acute pandemic phase, Reuters reported on Saturday.

"When I said we are no longer in that fulminant acute phase, that does not mean that the pandemic is over," Fanci said. "By no means is it over. We still are experiencing a global pandemic."

An article in The New York Times said experts believe reaching so-called 'Herd Immunity' is unlikely in the US.

US data on COVID-19 shows that up to 1 million deaths have been recorded, while the country still registers thousands of daily inflections now. And, quite unexpected the US GDP shrank 1.4 percent year-on-year in the first 3 months of 2022.

Travelers walk through terminals at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, April 14, 2022.Photo:Xinhua

Analysts said the Chinese economy's performance is in much better shape than that of the US, as China has put both the virus and inflation under firm control. 

According to the Xinhua News Agency on Saturday, The Chinese mainland on Friday reported 1,410 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 1,249 were in Shanghai, according to the National Health Commission's report on Saturday.

The rest of the cases were reported in 14 other provincial-level regions, including Beijing, Guangdong and Sichuan. And a total of 3,127 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery on the Chinese mainland on Friday, the National Health Commission said.

China's economy got off to a steady start in the first quarter of 2022 despite an increasingly complex international environment and resurgences of COVID-19 at numerous cities.

The country's gross domestic product grew 4.8 percent year-on-year to 27.02 trillion yuan (about $4.24 trillion) in the first three months, picking up pace from a 4-percent increase in the fourth quarter last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed April 18.

The economy posted a stable performance with continued recovery as China struck a balance between virus control and economic and economic and social development, NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui told a press conference.