{"title":"Challenges and Opportunities Associated with Lifting the Zero COVID-19 Policy in China.","authors":"Kun Hu, Lanjing Zhang","doi":"10.14218/erhm.2023.00002","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Chinese government lifted its \"Zero COVID-19\" policy in December 2022. The estimated COVDI-19 new cases and deaths after the policy change are 167-279 million (about 12.0% to 20.1% of the Chinese population) and 0.68-2.1 million, respectively. Recent data also revealed continuous drops in fertility rate and historically lowest growth in gross domestic production in China. Thus, balancing COVID-19 control and economic recovery in China is of paramount importance yet very difficult. Supply chain disruption, essential service reduction and shortage of intensive care units have been discussed as the challenges associated with lifting \"Zero COVID-19\" policy. The additional challenges may include triple epidemic of COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus and influenza, mental health issues of healthcare providers, care givers and patients, impact on human mobility, lack of robust genomic and epidemiological data and long COVID-19. However, the policy-associated opportunities and other challenges are largely untouched, but warrant attention of and prompt reactions by the policy makers, healthcare providers, public health officials and other stakeholders. The associated benefits are quick reach of herd immunity, boost of economy and businesses activities and increase in social activities. At this moment, we must embrace the policy change, effectively mitigate its associated problems and timely and effectively maximize its associated benefits.</p>","PeriodicalId":9483,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of Forest Research","volume":"19 1","pages":"71-75"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10989839/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Canadian Journal of Forest Research","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.14218/erhm.2023.00002","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/3/8 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"FORESTRY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Chinese government lifted its "Zero COVID-19" policy in December 2022. The estimated COVDI-19 new cases and deaths after the policy change are 167-279 million (about 12.0% to 20.1% of the Chinese population) and 0.68-2.1 million, respectively. Recent data also revealed continuous drops in fertility rate and historically lowest growth in gross domestic production in China. Thus, balancing COVID-19 control and economic recovery in China is of paramount importance yet very difficult. Supply chain disruption, essential service reduction and shortage of intensive care units have been discussed as the challenges associated with lifting "Zero COVID-19" policy. The additional challenges may include triple epidemic of COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus and influenza, mental health issues of healthcare providers, care givers and patients, impact on human mobility, lack of robust genomic and epidemiological data and long COVID-19. However, the policy-associated opportunities and other challenges are largely untouched, but warrant attention of and prompt reactions by the policy makers, healthcare providers, public health officials and other stakeholders. The associated benefits are quick reach of herd immunity, boost of economy and businesses activities and increase in social activities. At this moment, we must embrace the policy change, effectively mitigate its associated problems and timely and effectively maximize its associated benefits.
期刊介绍:
Published since 1971, the Canadian Journal of Forest Research is a monthly journal that features articles, reviews, notes and concept papers on a broad spectrum of forest sciences, including biometrics, conservation, disturbances, ecology, economics, entomology, genetics, hydrology, management, nutrient cycling, pathology, physiology, remote sensing, silviculture, social sciences, soils, stand dynamics, and wood science, all in relation to the understanding or management of ecosystem services. It also publishes special issues dedicated to a topic of current interest.