Experts: Dynamic zero-COVID policy still key

China must adhere to its dynamic zero-COVID strategy to protect its vulnerable population and cope with uncertainties associated with emerging variants and the lingering effects of the disease, public health experts said on Thursday. Liang Wannian, a member of the National Health Commission's virus control expert panel, said that completely ending the epidemic in China would require increasing mass vaccinations among the elderly, strengthening healthcare systems and developing more effective vaccines and drugs. "As a result, the absolute number of deaths across a certain population would still be quite large, and the disease's population-mortality risk remains higher than that of influenza," he said, adding that Omicron can also threaten to overstretch local medical systems and result in excessive deaths. The current dynamic zero-COVID strategy emphasizes prompt and precise detection and control of new outbreaks to avert sustained transmission and large-scale outbreaks, and achieve a balance between virus control and socioeconomic development, said experts. Wu, the chief epidemiologist, said, "Adherence to the dynamic zero-COVID approach not only enables containment of large outbreaks but also prevents most people from getting infected and suffering from long-COVID symptoms."