"No effort should be spared to attend every case, save every patient, and truly respect the value and dignity of every human life," Chinese leader Xi Jinping -- who has explicitly reiterated his support for the "zero-Covid" policy in recent weeks -- said at a global health summit last year.
Now, that picture is changing, as for the first time in nearly two years China's Covid death toll is rising on a daily basis, amid an outbreak in Shanghai that has seen the city of 25 million placed under a seemingly unending, stringent lockdown.