‘Zero COVID’ is roiling China. But ending the policy may cause a massive health disaster

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Nearly three years into a pandemic that has killed more than 6.6 million people worldwide, the official death toll in mainland China stands at 5,233 — a stunningly low number for the world’s most populous nation.

While most countries long ago stopped trying to eliminate the coronavirus and decided to live with it instead, China has gone to extreme lengths to prevent it from spreading. The government relentlessly tracks its citizens, mandates constant testing, shutters workers inside factories and locks down entire cities under a plan that has come to be known as “zero COVID.”

Now, with its economy in steep decline and protesters taking to the streets in a rare show of defiance against an authoritarian government, the country’s leaders are facing enormous pressure to ease up on those restrictions.

But there’s a major problem they’ll have to contend with: Zero COVID has