Residents wait in line to receive COVID-19 tests in Shanghai, east China, May 17, 2022. China's Shanghai has cut off [切断] the community transmission of COVID-19 in all its 16 districts, a municipal official said Tuesday. (Xinhua/Liu Ying)
Facing the highly transmissible Omicron variant [变体], China is sticking with [坚持] a dynamic zero-COVID policy when most other countries have eased restrictions[放松限制] and shifted towards [转向] living with the virus.
Some overseas media question the sustainability [质疑...的持续性] of the dynamic zero-COVID approach, citing the high social and economic cost.
However, China is determined to [下定决心] contain [遏制] the virus while maintaining economic growth [while doing 在做...的同时]. This strategy stems from [源于] a deep care for the vulnerable [易感人群], a strong belief in the people's strength and resilience [适应力], and unswerving [坚定的] faith in the country's future.
The dynamic zero-COVID approach suits that goal best.
Safeguarding people's health
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has always put the people and their lives first [放在第一位]. China's dynamic zero-COVID policy is not aimed at ralizing zero infection, but rather at [不是...而是...] bringing COVID-19 under control at the minimum social cost in the shortest time possible so as to [以便] effectively protect the health, normal life and production of the Chinese people to the maximum.
The relaxation of epidemic control and prevention is not suitable for the world's most populous [人口稠密的] country, home to 267 million elderly people aged 60 and above and 260 million people with underlying health conditions [潜在健康问题], currently vaccination rates for elderly and children are not high enough.
"If we are not firm about [坚定] the dynamic zero-COVID policy, China may miss the best time to stem the resurgence of cases [遏制疫情再次兴起], which [指代前一句话所述内容] may lead to higher costs and unbearable consequences [无法承受的后果]," China's leading epidemiologist Liang Wannian recently said.
According to another study published in Lancet, the persistence of dynamic zero COVID-19 community transmission in Shanghai and other regions will overcome weak links in the immunological barrier [免疫屏障] in populations across the country.
"When you look at the world, we can say that China's method is more suitable when considering public health," Bulent Ertugrul, an expert from Reyap Hospital in Istanbul, told Xinhua, noting that the dynamic zero-COVID approach has proved a significant success in China.
Since March this year, China has withstood [经受住, 抵挡住] the most severe challenge on COVID-19 control and prevention since the anti-epidemic battle of Wuhan in early 2020, as sporadic [零星的] resurgencesof domestic cases erupted in many regions across China.
Thanks to the zero-COVID policy of mass testing [大规模检测], quarantine [隔离], temporary lockdowns [暂时封锁], and closed-off management [封闭式管理], the current wave of epidemic has steadily shown signs of improvement.
China's financial hub [金融中心] Shanghai has cut off the community transmission of COVID-19 in all of its 16 districts and is seeing more factories return to normal operations [正常运营] and businesses reopen.
Ensuring economic development
It is inevitable that the stringent anti-epidemic measures [严格的防疫措施] will cause short-term economic pains [短期经济创伤], but the claims that anti-epidemic control and prevention measures will stifle the growth of the world's second-largest economy is shortsighted [无远见的].
Dynamic zero-COVID does not run counter to [与……背道而驰] economic development, rather it is a counter-epidemic policy that ensures economic growth in the long run [从长远来看].
More than two years into the pandemic, China has made strenuous effortsto [竭力做…] strike a balance between epidemic response and [在…之间达成平衡] economic development.
By adhering to [坚持] the dynamic zero-COVID policy, China was among the first countries to bring the epidemic under control [控制住…] and return to positive growth in 2020 and logged a growth rate of 8.1 percent in 2021.
As a result of a precise reaction to the virus and a slew of [大量的] pro-growth policies [积极经济成长的政策], China's economy is off to a steady start this year, with its GDP up 4.8 percent year on year in the first three months.
"The fundamentals [基本面] of the Chinese economy remain unchanged [保持不变]. The overall trends of economic transformation and upgrading and high-quality development remain unchanged," said Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
"The epidemic's impact is temporary and short-lived [临时的,短暂的], and the economy will soon be back on track [重回正轨] under efficient coordination [协调] between epidemic containment [流行病控制] and economic development," said Zhao Chenxin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission.
Unremitting control efforts
The global COVID-19 pandemic situation is still severe and full of uncertainties [充满不确定性], since the virus has been constantly mutating [产生突变] and it is possible for even more dangerous variants to emerge [出现].
As a developing country with a population of 1.4 billion, China has managed to [设法, 努力 (完成某事)] keep the COVID-19 infection and mortality rates [死亡率] lowest in the world, a clear vindication [辩护] of the effectiveness of China's zero-COVID policy.
The pandemic is far from over [远未结束], the dynamic zero-COVID approach has helped ensure people's health and underpin [支持, 巩固] steady economic development. It has proven to be the best choice so far, why would China give up?
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