Omicron is changing China’s covid strategy

FOR MOST of the covid-19 pandemic, a bargain based on tough love has bonded China’s rulers and people. Leaders have imposed tight controls on an unlucky minority—meaning anyone hapless enough to cross paths or live near someone with covid, or even to be a close contact of these close contacts. Such unfortunates face being quarantined for days or weeks. Right now mainland China is enduring its first big outbreak of the Omicron variant, and the ranks of the unlucky have grown rapidly. At least 40m people are under some form of lockdown, including an entire province, Jilin. The southern metropolis of Shenzhen confined most residents to their homes except for trips to buy food, though it prefers the term “life on pause” to “lockdown”. Some border cities have spent months cut off from the rest of China.