“As the omicron variant becomes less pathogenic, more people get vaccinated and our experience in Covid prevention accumulates, our fight against the pandemic is at a new stage and it comes with new tasks,” outgoing Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said at a meeting with the National Health Commission and health experts in Beijing on Wednesday.

Sun Chunlan is seen as China’s top official in charge of the fight against Covid-19 .

Info via a Bloomberg report (gated), adding that:

  • Sun’s remarks appear to be the first official, public acknowledgment in China that the virus is no longer as severe, and come amid other shifts in rhetoric that signal the country is finally looking at moving away from the Covid Zero stance that’s slammed its economy, left it globally isolated and disrupted people’s lives.
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