By Ephrahim Bahemu

When you are outside of China, if you hear about the Covid-19 situation through social networks or some foreign media, it’s certain that you will find pictures that are scary and see that there is probably no life there. But the reality is different: inside China life goes on almost as usual.

When I was planning to visit the country in June this year, I had a scary picture in my head, and every hour I was monitoring the news about the Covid-19 situation in China and asking my hosts.

Before visiting the country, it is mandatory to take several tests for the disease and after that you will be given a travel permit. At that time, I was still wondering what life would be like there.

On June 24, 2022, I arrived in China and stayed in quarantine for 14 days. The picture I had in my head was that many people were sick and everyone was afraid of others, but I witnessed different things.

The next day after my arrival in Beijing was a weekend, so I went to an international bar to relax. Life was as usual there. What you can see is the deliberate efforts made by the Chinese Government to control the disease, because at that time everywhere you went to get service or even visit, you must show that you had been tested within 72 hours and the result was negative. To enter all public places, you must wear a mask and were only supposed to take it off when eating or drinking.

After you were tested, the result would be digitized and connected to your mobile phone. When you were asked for test information, you just used your phone to scan a QR code.

The procedure was the result of China’s policy to deal with the disease, the famous ‘zero-Covid policy’, and the tests were given for free. There were numerous testing centers scattered in almost every corner of the city. Some centres work 24 hours, 7 days a week.

In his various speeches, Chinese President Xi Jinping has been stressing that the first priority of the country’s Covid-19 response is to protect people’s lives.

There has been criticism of ‘zero-Covid policy’, especially from certain foreign media outlets, but the ruling party and Government of China has defended it, saying that it has been a great help to the country and basically the system helps them identify the patients and their close contacts easily, so that they can take necessary actions in swift manner.

Currently, China has shifted the focus of its Covid-19 response from infection control to case treatment with the objective of preventing severe cases. The shift was made in accordance with the weakened pathogenicity of the virus. It does not run counter to the hard truth that China is one of the world’s best achievers in terms of saving lives from the Covid-19 pandemic.

China has managed to keep its severe Covid-19 cases and death rates among the lowest in the world. According to an analysis published by The Lancet this March, global estimates of excess deaths indicate 18.2 million people may have died because of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the excess mortality rate estimated to be 120 deaths per 100,000 population globally, 179 for the US, and 0.6 for China.

It is worth noting that China never considers anti-epidemic efforts and economic growth as an either-or choice. Rather, it stresses the importance of coordinating the two in a highly efficient way.

In the past 10 years, China’s annual economic growth rate was 6.6 percent on average, and the country had contributed to 38.6 percent of the world’s GDP growth from 2013 to 2021, according to World Bank data. Where Covid-19 brought challenges to the country, Chinese people invented various things and created new happiness.

Many businesses moved to digital, so sales in many areas was not significantly affected. In 2020, China was the first major economy across the globe that registered growth. The country’s average annual growth rate in 2020 and 2021 reached 5.1 percent.

With a gross domestic product of $15.72 trillion in the year 2021, China now is the second largest economy in the world, second only to the United States, and that level may further increase this year, since in the first three quarters of this year China’s GDP reached $13.17 trillion.

Apart from making sure that economic activities do not stop during this period, China won another victory by taking a big step forward in the health and medical sector. Due to the efforts made by the Chinese Government and enterprises, the country’s pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries have increased their efficiency to make a great contribution to the world.

Vaccines and other equipment from China spread around the world, and these efforts saved millions of people’s lives and reduced numerous deaths from the disease across the globe.