Emergence of Omicron vindicates China's appoarch on COVID-19 prevention: Bloomberg

A man walks past a notice of wearing face masks at a building in New York, the United States, Dec. 2, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

"If Western countries are walking back on their reopening and closing borders, they'll lose the grounds for accusing China of sticking to what they say is an unsustainable and incorrect approach," a global health expert said.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- The emergence of Omicron has somehow vindicated what China has been doing to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic, a Bloomberg report said recently.

In an article published on Wednesday, Bloomberg said as countries across the world scrambled this week to impose border and travel curbs after the new Omicron variant emerged, China has hardly been affected by the new variant.

Passengers wearing face masks are seen at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, Dec. 4, 2021. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua)

"China has prioritized weeding out every last infection, saying the health of the population is its main priority -- and economic benefits will follow," the report said.

"If Western countries are walking back on their reopening and closing borders, they'll lose the grounds for accusing China of sticking to what they say is an unsustainable and incorrect approach," Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, was quoted by the report as saying.

China's approach, which protects the country's economic fundamentals and curbs the virus, can put the world's second largest economy "in a better position to face the new variant," said Kinger Lau, a strategist with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to the report.