A medical worker takes a swab sample from a resident for nucleic acid test in Hohhot, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, March 2, 2022. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
On Monday, the Chinese mainland saw 325 new cases, among which 175 were locally transmitted. These are negligible compared with some countries. But they are worrying considering there had only been sporadic reports of infections in the country for a long time.
Even more worrying, unlike past appearances of the virus which were mostly concentrated in individual cities or areas, the latest flare-ups have appeared in various parts of the country.
The broad distribution of infections has been rare since the epidemic was at its height more than two years ago. And it is raising questions about whether the country needs to change its "dynamic clearing" approach given that the characteristics of the Omicron strain of the novel coronavirus pose great challenges to source and contact tracing, which are critical to the effectiveness of the approach.
But the laissez-faire approach of some foreign countries is simply throwing in the towel, and is both irresponsible and inadvisable. China stresses early detection, early tracing, early quarantine and early treatment, which has proved an effective approach. It combines big data analysis, the on-the-ground executive power of grassroots governments, the full cooperation of the people and the efficient mobilization of resources nationwide.
Were it not for the painstaking efforts the country has made to fight with the virus using that approach, it would not have made its remarkable socioeconomic achievements over the past two years; a hard-won performance that has contributed tremendously to stabilizing world economic recovery, and the success of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
In other words, although the occasional outbreaks of the epidemic in the country may have left some with the impression that the dynamic clearing approach means pressing a pause button in a neighborhood and even a town, taking a holistic view of the country shows that the small size of the clusters and their scattered dispersal highlights how effective the approach is.
Given the dramatic resurgence of the virus worldwide－about 1.6 million infections and 8,000 deaths a day－were it not for China's insistence on its dynamic clearing approach, the country would have long since become a hard-hit hot spot on the global pandemic map. Yet with a population about 18 percent of the world total, China accounts for just 0.00077 percent of the COVID-19 deaths worldwide, and the last death caused by the virus occurred in January last year.
Compared with two years ago when the outbreak of the epidemic forced the country into a rushed response, now the dynamic clearing system is more organized, coordinated and efficient. Now is the time to carry it on. Mercy to the enemy is brutality to oneself.