Reopen China’s borders when vaccination at home is high and cases overseas are low, says top doctor

China should only remove all its border restrictions once there were few infections in other countries and the vast majority of the Chinese population was vaccinated against the coronavirus, the country’s leading respiratory diseases expert said on Sunday.

In an interview with the Southern People Weekly magazine, Dr Zhong Nanshan said 80 to 85 per cent of China’s 1.4 billion people would have to be vaccinated, a milestone that could be reached by the end of the year. However, maintaining the strictest epidemic control measures would be unsustainable, putting great stress on China, he said.