Chinese border opening remains out of reach

Writer： admin Time：2021-12-08 14:49 Browse：℃

When Covid-19 vaccines were rolled out in China earlier this year, the great hope was that a way out of the pandemic had been found.

 

Once enough people had been vaccinated, enough of a community barrier against the coronavirus would have been built, so that outbreaks could be limited and the country would be free to reopen safely to the world, that was the hope.

 

Now, as much as 76 per cent of China’s population is fully vaccinated, but herd immunity – along with the hoped-for relaxation of pandemic measures and opening of the borders – still remains out of reach.

 

With the virus mutating into ever more contagious and risky variants, vaccination has been expanded to younger age groups and booster doses offered to make up for waning protection more than six months on.

 

Strong public health interventions such as strict quarantine rules, vigorous testing and contact tracing are still being quickly put in place at the first sign of a local outbreak.

 

China has not officially set a vaccination target for building herd immunity, although some government-affiliated experts have said that 80 to 85 per cent of the population would now need to be fully vaccinated to achieve this.