Thus, many public health experts think that China will be hit hard by the coronavirus as the country rapidly lifts its zero-COVID policy. Though not officially called a zero-COVID policy at the time, the control measures were born out of a goal of eliminating COVID-19 from the country. But since early November 2022, COVID-19 cases in China have climbed steadily, with more than 35,000 new cases detected per day in the first week of December. In addition to concerns over vaccination, the zero-COVID policy has, to a large extent, successfully suppressed the coronavirus in China. Maintaining stringent zero-COVID policies has thus become increasingly difficult.