Top epidemiologist upbeat on COVID-19 control in China
Dr Zhang Wenhong
As long as there is no strain on medical resources, COVID-19 will be brought under total control in China even though there is no cure for the disease at the moment, famed epidemiologist Zhang Wenhong wrote in an Internet post on Tuesday.
Zhang, a doctor from Huashan Hospital, serves as the head of Shanghai COVID-19 treatment team and is also director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases.
"Through epidemic control effort and the research and development of new medicines to treat the disease, China will definitely reach a rather low fatality rate for COVID-19 while ensuring that there is no strain on medical resources," he wrote.
Patients being treated for COVID-19 in Shanghai are in stable condition, and the atmosphere in the wards is much more relaxing than during the Spring Festival holidays in the past two years, Zhang informed the public through his profile on Weibo, a Twitter-like service in China.
In terms of the Omicron variant – deemed more contagious than the previous Delta variant – of the novel coronavirus, Zhang is of the opinion that it's no longer a mystery to people, but it doesn't mean that vaccination against it is no longer necessary.
"Statistics show that the fatality rate of this variant among people under 60 years old is on the level of that of flu, but it's still much more fatal to people above 60," he wrote. "It's proved that booster shots of vaccines have significantly driven down that rate for older people."
Commenting on different pandemic control measures being used by various countries, Zhang said the concern for some is that the fatality rate on COVID-19 after booster shots is still considered to be rather high – over 1.8 percent – among the elderly, which calls for discreet relaxation of measures and special protection of this vulnerable group of people.
"The worst days of the pandemic will gradually pass, but if we hope to reach a very low fatality rate of the disease, it might take a bit longer to announce that it's entirely over for us," he wrote.
