CHINA in recent weeks is bracing for a new round of COVID outbreak. Some cities including my hometown have pressed the pause button to contain a surge in infections.

Two months ago I arrived in Cambodia’s Sihanoukville province on a job assignment. Over half of those in my office have got COVID. Someone who you changed greetings with on your way to lunch could test positive in the afternoon. We call it “getting parallel bars” if we get a positive result with self-purchased antigen tests. A co-worker who lives next door was in quarantine. I have always been a close contact but no one put me under quarantine.

If I hadn’t left China, I wouldn’t have known what a relief it is to work and live in China. Medical facilities are not as good and functional here as those in China. I have gotten to accept it after a stressful period. My colleagues who had COVID often began with a fever; most of them would be prescribed some pills and turn negative in a week. I suppose the three doses of vaccine shots we took before leaving China helped a lot.

For China, a country with a population of 1.4 billion, the governments have a tough decision to make in balancing the measures to control the spread of COVID and mitigate the impact of those measures on economy and daily life. The measures are taken primarily to protect the elderly and the frail, who are immunocompromised or for some reason could not be vaccinated. In other words, those measures are an effort towards social egalitarianism in a society where no one is neglected or left behind. As responsible citizens, we need to wear our masks, keep social distances in public venues and avoid crowds to protect ourselves and those around us.

Zhang Yaming via email