BEIJING — A senior Chinese health official has warned of the consequences of abandoning epidemic prevention in the fight against COVID-19.

If China gives up on epidemic prevention and relies entirely on treatment of symptoms, the medical system would run the risk of being overwhelmed, said Ma Xiaowei, director of the National Health Commission, in an article published on March 30.

China has implemented a dynamic zero-COVID strategy. The policy does not seek to pursue absolute zero infections, rather it calls for measures to stamp out infections upon detection and to maintain the red line of no sizeable resurgence of cases, said the official.

Demographics have played an important role in the decision to adhere to the dynamic zero-COVID policy, the official noted. According to the latest statistics, China has 267 million people aged 60 or above and more than 250 million children.

Despite the onslaught of the highly contagious and elusive Omicron variant, the dynamic zero-COVID policy remains the most economical and effective containment strategy for the country to cope with the coronavirus.