China’s Vice Premier calls for optimizing COVID-19 response after nationwide protests

(ANI) Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan has called for further optimizing the country’s COVID-19 response following protests in its major cities against the strict zero COVID policy.

“As the pathogenicity of the Omicron virus weakens, more people are vaccinated and experience in containing the virus is accumulated, the country is facing a new situation and new tasks in epidemic prevention and control,” Sun said on Wednesday in a statement published by China’s State Council.

The top Chinese official also called for improving response to the changing situation around the pandemic, stressing the importance of optimizing the country’s policy on disease prevention, testing and quarantine measures, as well as immunization of the whole population.

At the same time, Sun noted that Chinese authorities had always “put people’s health and safety first” and tackled the pandemic with “a consistent strategy and flexible measures.”

China has adhered to a zero-tolerance policy toward COVID-19 cases almost from the very beginning of the pandemic. Chinese epidemiological control is one of the strictest in the world.

Over the weekend, thousands of people in Shanghai, China’s biggest city and financial centre, began publicly protesting the government’s strict Covid-19 measures and denouncing the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian rule, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).