Countries across the world scrambled this week to impose border and travel curbs after the new omicron variant emerged. In China, it was business as usual.
While scientists race to figure out whether the COVID-19 variant first sequenced in South Africa will pose a bigger problem than the highly infectious delta strain, countries ranging from the U.K. and Israel to Japan erred on the side of caution. They put in place preemptive defenses and travel restrictions designed to keep the variant out, rather than betting on omicron being a flash in the pan. It’s a calculus Beijing didn’t have to consider.
The emergence of the highly mutated form of the virus has provided some vindication for China’s "COVID zero" approach, which saw the country close its border indefinitely at the beginning of the pandemic, and intensify its stringent curbs ever since. While other places pivot to living alongside the virus, China has prioritized weeding out every last infection, saying the health of the population is its main priority — and economic benefits will follow.