The “zero-COVID” strategy

Many countries have implemented a “zero-COVID” strategy: China, Australia, Cambodia, Iceland, New Zealand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Thailand. The strategy is well known: COVID cases are driven down to a very low figure thanks to a very strict lockdown and capacity is built to “test, trace and isolate” the small number of cases that reappear. This strategy is very different from that of European countries, which have pursued a “stop and go” strategy consisting of alternating periods of strict and relaxed public health restrictions to keep the number of cases at an acceptable albeit high level. One widely held view is that the choice of European countries stems from the high economic and social or even political cost of the zero-COVID strategy. But in reality, the cost of this strategy is much lower than that of the European strategy: in most cases, health restrictions are minor and the lives of the inhabitants of the country that pursues zero COVID are almost normal. These countries’ economies exited the crisis much faster and with much less damage than European economies; their numbers of deaths due to COVID are also low. Europe must now consider a zero-COVID strategy.