Sébastien Le Belzic, edited by Yanis Darras 06:15, December 09, 2022

Nearly 3 years after the appearance of Covid-19 in China, the country's health authorities have decided to rename the virus.

A way for Beijing to turn the page on the pandemic definitively and to support its change of policy, while the Chinese Communist Party has just abandoned its “zero Covid” strategy. 

Don't call it Covid-19 anymore.

Three years after the start of the pandemic in Wuhan, China, the middle empire has decided to turn the page, by changing the name of the virus.

Because, for the head of the infectious diseases branch of the very official Chinese Association of Medicine, the coronavirus has mutated.

For Beijing, it is therefore time to change its official name, at least in China. 

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Currently, the Chinese name for Covid-19 explains that it is a disease causing severe pneumonia.

And if the latter has not yet been renamed, it should now be simply called "infectious virus".

But this announcement above all reflects the desire of the Chinese authorities to turn the page on the epidemic and to support the end of the most controversial measures of its “zero Covid” policy. 

"Moving from detection to prevention"

A way also to pass the pill to a section of the population who do not understand why the authorities have changed their tune so abruptly this week, in particular on the end of quarantine centers and compulsory tests. 

"We must move from detection to prevention", announces the health agency, which simply recommends that the sick take care of themselves at home.