China’s immunity gap exposed

A coronavirus outbreak that is on the verge of becoming China’s biggest of the pandemic has exposed a critical flaw in Beijing’s ‘‘zero Covid’’ strategy: A vast population without natural immunity.

After months with only occasional hot spots, most of China’s 1.4 billion people have never been exposed to the virus. Chinese authorities, who on Friday reported a record 31,656 infections, are scrambling to protect the most vulnerable populations.

They have launched a more aggressive vaccination drive, expanded hospital capacity, and started to restrict the movement of at-risk groups. The elderly, who have an especially low vaccination rate, are a key target.

These efforts, which stop short of approving foreign vaccines, are an attempt to keep the virus from overwhelming a healthcare system ill-prepared for a flood of very sick Covid patients.

China’s strategy of smothering outbreaks originally protected everyday life and the economy while preventing severe illness and death. But it has become increasingly costly as ever stricter measures fail to keep up with more transmissible variants.

Earlier this month, the government announced what appeared to be the most significant easing of controls so far, with shorter quarantine times and fewer testing requirements.

But the effort to break cycles of disruptive lockdowns has had

a rocky start. Some cities relaxed measures, while districts in others ordered residents not to set foot outside their homes. The result: confusion, fear and anger.

Confrontations have erupted in a few locations, most prominently at a huge Foxconn plant in central China that makes half the world’s iPhones. Events there turned violent this week as thousands of workers protested the company’s failure to isolate people testing positive, and to honour the terms of their employment contracts.

The first deaths to be reported since May – though only one or two per day – have intensified

concerns that hospitals are poorly prepared to handle a surge in severe cases. Bloomberg Intelligence has estimated that fully relaxing coronavirus controls could leave 5.8 million Chinese needing intensive care in a system with only four beds per 100,000 people.

Chinese health officials say the spread of infection is accelerating in multiple locations, with some provinces facing their worst outbreaks in three years.

Curbing outbreaks is again taking priority. Major cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing, have ordered

residents in certain neighbourhoods to stay home. Shopping malls, museums and schools have been closed once more. Major conference centres are being turned back into temporary quarantine centres.

China’s vaccines initially were limited to adults aged 19 to 60, a policy that continues to have repercussions for vaccination rates. Just 40% of Chinese older than 80 have received a booster shot, despite months of campaigning and giftgiving to encourage uptake. Among people older than 60, just two-thirds have received a booster.