China: authorities celebrate “decisive victory” over Covid-19
Masks, still, during the morning rush hour in Beijing's central business district, Thursday, February 16, 2023. AP - Mark Schiefelbein
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
In China, the authorities are celebrating the “
decisive victory
” over the pandemic.
The conclusion made public at a meeting of the highest Party authorities also affirms that the abandonment of the “zero Covid” policy was the right one.
The death rate remains one of the lowest in the world, at least officially.
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With our correspondent in Beijing,
Stéphane Lagarde
The Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party chaired by Xi Jinping will not have waited for the meeting of the Chinese Parliament next March to celebrate the end of this long fight against the virus.
If this is not the final victory, it is a “
decisive victory
”, hammer the state media, taking up elements of the official discourse which do not necessarily correspond to what the population perceived last winter.
After rescheduling towards a so-called “ dynamic
” health restrictions strategy
in the months leading up to it, the abrupt abandonment of the zero-Covid policy is described as a “
smooth change of course
”, with 800,000 patients in “
serious
” condition.
recovered from pneumonia since November and more than 200 million people diagnosed and treated, according to official figures.
Regarding deaths, officially again, 80,000 Covid-19 deaths were recorded in hospitals between December 8 and February 9.
As after the confinement of Wuhan, it is the term “
miracle
” that comes up to explain this low mortality: “
The fact that a large, very populated country managed to overcome such a pandemic will remain as a miracle in the history of the world. 'humanity.
»
Figures disputed by foreign studies which, on the basis of 80% of the infected population, i.e. 1.13 billion infected Chinese, reported to the lethality rate given by the authorities (between 0.09% and 0.16%) , estimate at least one million the number of deaths.
►Also read China: first return to school since the end of “zero Covid-19” restrictions
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China
Health and medicine
Coronavirus
Xi Jinping