China plans to strike a balance between socio-economic development and anti-COVID-19 policy: Report from the 20th national congress of China

After the initial outbreak in 2019, successive waves of COVID-19 continuously challenged China's zero-COVID-19 policy. Although multiple domestic outbreaks have been quickly contained and put out, China's zero-COVID policy has sparked debate over its negative impact on social and economic development. It is conservatively estimated that the 2022 Shanghai lockdown has cost an economic loss of 1.7 trillion yuan (233 billion dollars), with an additional high cost for restarting social activities after lifting the city-wide lockdown. Although the ailing socio-economy is struggling to recuperate from successive COVID-19 outbreaks, the slowing down economic development has not fully recovered yet. In the long run, the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 might be greater than the disease itself, which deserves more attention.

Since October 2022, a new wave of COVID-19 outbreak has occurred, once again, and swept through nearly every province and region in China (https://ncov.dxy.cn/ncovh5/view/en_pneumonia). In the foreseeable future, with the emergence of novel immune-escape variants of SARS-CoV-2, China's zero-COVID-19 policy and socio-economic development are facing unprecedented challenges. In response to growing domestic outbreaks, China has revised its COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment guidelines in nine editions. According to the latest isolation and discharge criteria, the post-discharge precautions have changed from 14 days of quarantine to 7 days of health monitoring at home. This change marks China’s active exploration of anti-COVID-19 policies at minimal socio-economic cost.

On October 16, 2022, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC)—a meeting of the highest leadership of China—opened in Beijing. For the first time for CPC National Congress held under the background of COVID-19 pandemic, a national agenda of fighting COVID-19 was proposed to coordinate anti-COVID-19 policies with sustainable social and economic development. China will actively explore epidemic prevention policies to strike a balance between socio-economic benefits and people's health.

Afterward, on November 11, 2022, the Joint COVID-19 Prevention and Control Team of the National Health Commission from the State Council of China announced a series of novel anti-COVID-19 policies, commonly referred to as the “20 Measures” of optimized disease prevention and control. The “20 Measures” were developed to adapt to the current situation of COVID-19 outbreaks and immune-escape viral mutations and, in the meantime, strive to minimize the negative impact of COVID-19 on socio-economic development. The “20 Measures” recommend adopting more precisely targeted measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 and prohibit the abuse of anti-COVID-19 policies. The previously overused “circuit breaker” mechanisms of domestic and international travel restrictions, social distancing, school and workplace closures, city-wide lockdowns, and quarantine of secondary close contacts due to COVID-19 are gradually being abandoned. It is to be mentioned that a shortened quarantine period for incoming travelers and close contacts related to COVID-19 is also included in the “20 Measures”. Furthermore, China's central authorities have established working groups to supervise the proper implementation of the “20 Measures” by local governments. Efforts of rectification will be supported to prohibit the one-size-fits-all strategy that leads to the misuse of anti-COVID-19 policies. These optimized anti-COVID-19 policies will help maintain business activity, ensure the stability of the industrial chain, and facilitate socio-economic recovery during COVID-19 outbreaks.

The global crisis of COVID-19 pandemic has sparked the regressive reality of our world, adding fuel to the fire ever since. Lessons learned from COVID-19 also include the importance of solidarity. Each one of us has a responsibility to ourselves and to our world. We must take our roles seriously and arise from demoralization. Without everyone's contribution, the regressive reality in the past will continue to plague the present world. In the face of an unprecedented global crisis, it is time to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. As the world's second-largest economy, China is showing its ambition to make an important contribution to the global recovery in the new era of the COVID-19 pandemic.