China will continue to apply its “Covid zero” policy

China affirmed this Saturday that it will “firmly” adhere to its “Covid zero” policy, ending the hope that Beijing will ease the radical health protocol it applies against the pandemic.

The Chinese government “will firmly adhere to the global policy of “Covid zero”,” said the spokesman for the national health commission (NHC), Mi Feng.

The “Covid zero” policy, which has been in force for almost three years in the country, includes confinement measures, large-scale PCR tests and the obligation to undergo quarantine when arriving in the country from abroad.

“Currently, China continues to be confronted with the dual threat of imported infections and the spread of epidemics nationals,” Mi Feng argued during a press conference, in which he considered that the situation in the face of the pandemic is “more somber and complex than ever.”

“We have to continue to prioritize people and lives,” the spokesman stressed.

On Saturday, China recorded a surge in Covid-19 cases, with 3,659 new infections, mostly asymptomatic. This is a sharp increase considering that 2,000 new infections had been reported on Wednesday.

The number of people in quarantine is currently the highest since shanghai lockdown of last spring, indicated the Capital Economics cabinet, with outbreaks detected in more than 50 cities.