"China has made an enormous accomplishment in preventing and controlling COVID-19 in the past two year,” said Zhong Nanshan, Chinese renowned respiratory scientist at the online conference “2022-Annual Chinese Thoracic Society on December 9. " WHO assessed the policy we adopted as one of the best choices for preventing COVID-19 in a report published in 2021.”
The Chinese government announced to further optimize COVID-19 control measures on December 8, stating that the majority of the infected can be treated at home. “Although the pandemic is not over yet, we should stop treating it the samely as 2 years ago.” said Zhong.
Accoridng to Zhong, Omicron is highly contagious, but its morbidity rate has been greatly weakened compared with the coronavirus two years ago. Zhong reported that the risk of COVID-19 sequelae caused by the Omicron strain is significantly reduced, and asymptomatic infections basically have no COVID-19 sequelae.
"99% of patients infected with Omicron can fully recover within 7-10 days." Zhong added.
In addition, Zhong said the focus of prevention and control policies should be shifted from infection to the prevention and control of severe cases. He strongly called for stepping up booster vaccinations, saying “The same type of vaccines can be used for boosting immunization. Although the effect of preventing infection will not be enhanced, the effect of preventing severe disease still exists. However, when boosting immunization with heterogeneous vaccines, the effect is significantly improved.”
A recent study conducted by the Chinese CDC in 14 cities across China showed that three doses of inactivated vaccine resulted in 94% protection against severe and critical illnesses. “This data shows that China-made vaccines are effective against the Omicron,” said Zhong.
Meanwhile, Zhong also called for strengthening the immunization and the vaccination of the elderly and at-risk people. R&D and approval of nasal spray, inhalable vaccines and related drugs should be accelerated.
On December 8, Guangdong reported 1,256 new locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,989 asymptomatic cases.
Authors | Clarice, Hannah
Editors | Wing, Steven, Will, Jerry
