China’s top respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan said that China has adopted a right path since the COVID-19 outbreak by making an all-out effort to curb the spread of the virus, and prevention-centered strategy will continue to dominate while the specific policies may change when the effective vaccination rate is high enough.

Zhong made the remarks in a latest interview with Southern People Weekly that was reported on Sunday. 

Zhong believed the criterion for China to generally relax border control is 80 to 85 percent overall vaccinated. He noted that after effective vaccination, most people would show no or mild symptoms if infected. 

Vaccination also effectively drops fatality rate of the disease, which is 1-2 percent worldwide, dozens of times of flu. When fatality rate is low enough, absolute most people who get COVID-19 will recover rather than one or two in every hundred could die, Zhong said.