Sporadic outbreaks not a cause of concern, expert says

China has the ability to curb the recent sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks as a massive vaccine campaign has already helped the nation form the immune barrier, said a leading Chinese expert.

"In a macro view, the sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks is a general situation as we are in the stage of normalizing the control and prevention work against the novel coronavirus epidemic," said Shao Yiming, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in an interview with Yicai at the Global Economic Development and Security Forum of Boao Forum For Asia.

He said the local governments and health authorities in Gansu and Inner Mongolia autonomous region have taken swift responses to the new wave of outbreak.

"We now have the vaccination rate reaching over 80 percent nationwide, there is no need to get over-concerned about the sporadic outbreak. We have to take positive measures but not worry about the situation or start panicking," he told Yicai.

Shao, however, warned that the epidemic may rebound when people start doing more indoor activities because of the winter season.

"We have the ability to control the sporadic outbreaks due to the experience and effective measures we've already taken, also due to the immune barrier thanks to the vaccination campaign," he added.