Xi Jinping defends China's zero-Covid policy amid Shanghai lockdown to curb surge in cases
India TodayDefending his country's stringently implemented zero-COVID policy amid a huge surge of coronavirus cases in Shanghai and other cities, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday said China's targeted and effective COVID-19 prevention and control measures ensured the safe and smooth hosting of Winter Olympics. Addressing a gathering to honour those who have made outstanding contributions to the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games, he asserted that China's anti-COVID policy has once again withstood the test of time, contributing useful experience for the world to fight against the virus and host major international events. Xi's comments came as Shanghai, the city of 26 million, has become a new epicentre of the latest COVID-19 surge in China, setting a six-straight day record by logging over 20,000 cases, prompting authorities to keep the city under lockdown for several days to conduct repeated mass tests. The outbreak in Shanghai, caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid-19, is becoming so serious that the city's Communist Party sent an open letter to rally members to help front-line health workers in their quest to find and snuff out the disease, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post newspaper reported on Thursday.