President of China, Xi Jinping, in a speech to senior party members, said that the country will continue with its zero Covid policy and warned doubters of the policy. Jinping was addressing the seven-member politburo standing committee, China’s highest decision-making body on the virus outbreak in Shanghai, the Guardian reported.
Jinping said that response to the outbreak was “scientific and effective”. He also asked the committee to “unswervingly adhere to the general policy of dynamic zero-Covid”.
“We have won the battle to defend Wuhan, and we will certainly be able to win the battle to defend Shanghai,” he said.
According to the state media, this is the first time that Jinping has publicly made comments on China's fight against Covid since an outbreak of furore over Shanghai's recent harsh lockdown.
Stringent lockdowns and a zero-Covid policy are how China has been dealing with the pandemic since it was first detected in December 2019. Even recently China relied on mass testing as it did in the first phase of the pandemic to curb the spread of the virus. A recent weeks-long lockdown sparked chaos with food shortages, a negative impact on major businesses and creating a delivery lag for its 25 million residents. This drew much criticism on the zero-Covid policy.