Dropping zero-Covid policy in China without safeguards risks 1.5m lives – study

China risks just over 1.5 million Covid deaths if it drops its tough zero-Covid policy without any safeguards such as ramping up vaccination and access to treatments, according to new modelling by scientists in China and the United States. The warning follows several recently published reports from senior health advisers in China who said the zero-Covid approach remains essential to defeating the pandemic and buying time for mitigating measures. China has stuck with its zero-Covid strategy even as most other countries that once championed the policy shifted towards living with the virus in order to reopen their economies and restore…