Opinion: China Needs to Break the Stalemate on Smarter Covid Control

China’s State Council, the cabinet, recently called for measures to optimize pandemic prevention and control in a scientific and targeted manner, issuing a list of 20 changes to policies across China. However, the implementation varies from place to place.

Many areas in China have taken immediate action, including cutting the quarantine period for close contacts, easing controls on areas and people with less risky exposure to the virus and revising the nucleic acid testing requirements. But other jurisdictions have made only minor changes or even adopted a wait-and-see posture while sticking with previous practices.