Residents line up outside a pharmacy to buy antigen testing kits for the coronavirus disease , in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, Dec 15, 2022.WASHINGTON — Officials and global health experts outside China are anxiously watching a Covid-19 surge there, worried a nation of 1.4 billion people is inadequately vaccinated and may not have the healthcare tools to treat a wave of illness expected to kill more than one million people through 2023.
President Xi Jinping has long insisted that the country's one party-system is best suited to handle the disease, and that Chinese vaccines are superior to western counterparts, despite some evidence to the contrary. Washington and Beijing officials discussed how to handle Covid-19 earlier this month in talks in China to prepare for Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit early next year, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said last week. He refused to give details, citing "sensitive diplomatic channels.
But US drugmaker Pfizer last week reached an agreement to export its Covid-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid to China through a local company, saying it was working with all stakeholders to secure adequate supply. "We want China to get Covid-19 right," Blinken said earlier this month. "It’s in the interests of the Chinese people first and foremost, but it’s also in the interests of people around the world."