“When we talk about the zero Covid strategy, we don’t think it’s sustainable, considering how the virus is behaving now and what we expect for the future,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday in Geneva. Chinese experts were informed of this assessment. He considers a realignment of strategy “very important”.
WHO emergency director Michael Ryan also said, given China’s corona strategy, it was time to restart. It is important to respect “individual rights and human rights” in all measures to combat the pandemic and balance “control measures with the impact on society and the economy”.
The WHO expert responsible for the corona, Maria Van Kerkhove, said that it was impossible to completely stop the transmission of the virus worldwide. “But we have to contain the transmission because the virus circulates a lot.”
The Chinese government is under increasing pressure because of its zero Covid strategy. Especially in Shanghai, which has been hit hardest by the omicron wave and has been in lockdown for nearly seven weeks, discontent over the strict measures is growing.
French President Emmanuel Macron indirectly criticized Beijing’s coronavirus policy in a phone call with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Tuesday. The separation of children and parents must “be avoided under all circumstances”, Macron said, according to the Élysée Palace. Shanghai health officials admitted in early April that babies and young children who test positive would be separated from their parents if the mother and father were not infected.