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Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Covid-19 cases in China are exploding. While the country has decided to lift the restrictions linked to their “Zero Covid” policy, the population is facing an outbreak of contamination. Should we be worried about what’s going on? The answers of Dr Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo.
China is changing its strategy in the face of Covid-19. After having decided not to communicate daily about the number of cases of contamination, the health authorities announced on Monday December 26 the end of the compulsory quarantine on arrival on its territory. And from January 8, a negative test of less than 48 hours will suffice.
China faces an explosion of infections and deaths
Faced with this relaxation, the country is logically facing an increase in contamination and deaths linked to Covid-19. If the figure of 250 million infected people is quoted by certain media, it is impossible to verify the information, since the Chinese health authorities no longer communicate officially on the subject.
Nevertheless, the information seems coherent, when it is crossed with the numerous testimonies from overcrowded hospitals and morgues experiencing an unprecedented influx of bodies.
A worrying change of course
Should the situation worry us? According to Dr. Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo, the situation results from the “Zero Covid” policy desired by the health authorities. “China wanted to control the virus, by imposing strict health constraints on its population and it is impossible to maintain, in the long term. The population today is only slightly immunized and there are now many cases. of contamination, following the relaxation of these measures“explains the doctor.
Is there a risk of a new variant appearing? “We should rather speak of mutation“says Gérald Kierzek. “The virus that circulates massively replicates more quickly, with a greater risk of error and a lower virulence” he reassures. It is currently a sub-variant of Omicron, called BF.7, which is the majority in China. It would give the same symptoms as those we know: cough, runny nose, fever, body aches…
Should we fear a resumption of the epidemic?
What is happening in China can legitimately cause concern. But Dr. Kierzek recalls the differences between countries, and stresses that what is happening in China cannot be transposed to France. “The Chinese population is elderly, poorly vaccinated and hospitals are not always at the cutting edge of technology, everywhere in the country. It is also the state of their healthcare system that makes the emergency services overwhelmed. Finally, it is always necessary to relate the figures to the scale of their population, which is more than one billion inhabitants.“says Gérald Kierzek.
Border measures, reinstated by some countries
Should we consider closing the borders or imposing tests on Chinese travelers, as neighboring India and Japan have decided? “It is useless, it is a pandemic virus and even endemic now, we cannot establish viral hermeticism” denounces Dr. Kierzek, who also recalls that a climate of Sinophobia should not be reinstalled, as the Chinese and all people of Asian origin were able to experience at the start of the pandemic.