Macroscope | For China, the costs of living with Covid-19 are still too high
- China can’t just abandon its zero-Covid policy if it means health care services would be overwhelmed, especially in rural areas
- Economic reopening has facilitated robust recoveries in the US and Europe. Yet, this has also led to a number of challenges
Many see this as a possible way out of the doldrums of the past two years, as Covid-19 may finally transition from pandemic to endemic. After two years of disruption to people’s lives, there is also greater public resistance to lockdowns. Hence, keeping the economy open seems to be a better option for governments.
As with playing against a top football team, you can only defend for so long before conceding a goal. From the global perspective, there are concerns that the Chinese manufacturing and logistics sectors will be under pressure again, which could bring more disruption to global supply chains.
However, there are important reasons it would very challenging for China to consider switching tactics at this juncture.
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China’s Omicron outbreaks dampening Lunar New Year travels
First, there are medical considerations. During the latest wave of Omicron, which started in early December, there have been roughly 64,000 Covid cases for every million people in the United States and Europe.
