China, where a strict zero tolerance approach contained the virus until the more infectious delta and omicron variants emerged last year.
Now with the country grappling with the worst Covid outbreak since Wuhan in early 2020, doubts about the effectiveness of China’s policy to eliminate the virus have been growing.
The lockdown and repeated testing of Shanghai’s 25 million residents hasn’t yet stopped infections as the city reported more than 22,000 cases Sunday, taking the total number of people infected with the virus to more than 300,000.
Yet Beijing has vowed repeatedly to stick with the so-called Covid Zero policy. A front-page commentary in the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, the People’s Daily, on Monday called for stricter implementation of Covid control and prevention measures, warning a relaxation of efforts would risk crippling China’s health care system.