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What is China’s zero-COVID policy?

January 14, 2022
GZERO Staff
What Is China’s Zero-COVID Policy? | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

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We've all heard about there being zero COVID in China. But there's more to Beijing's pandemic containment strategy, which started immediately after the initial Wuhan outbreak.

"Through swift action, lockdowns, quarantine and contact tracing, the country was able to quickly reduce cases," says Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"The success in Wuhan led to greater implementation countrywide, and ever since Beijing has kept COVID at bay." Zero COVID, by the way, "means zero — not close to zero," which explains why Shanghai Disneyland shut down and 30,000 tests were conducted after a single suspected infection.

Despite lockdowns, Huang says the policy is quite popular in China, where many people "are even proud that the country has gotten the virus under control, especially as the United States struggles."

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