Chief epidemiologist explains what dynamic zero-COVID policy truly means

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, took to his social media on Monday to clarify four common misconceptions about the dynamic zero-COVID policy.

1. Dynamic zero-COVID policy does not mean having no infected cases.

Dynamic zero-COVID policy means stamping out an outbreak whenever it occurs and doing so in a relatively short time frame so that it won't lead to community spread. It does not mean the whole country has no infected cases.

Under the dynamic zero-COVID policy, so long as there is no community spread, it is acceptable for cases to exist in quarantine because they are temporarily isolated from society. For example, an area may report over 200 cases in a day, but if they are all from the quarantine facilities, this means there are no transmission at the community level, which is a prerequisite for achieving dynamic clearance.