The Christmas decorations have been packed away for another year and, as we welcome in 2022, we are hoping that this year is the final one dominated by COVID-19. However, that may be a distant pipe dream, as the world is still working out how to deal with the omicron variant. In this issue, Alistair Baker-Brian outlines how China is tackling the new variant and what measures the country will take to return to ‘normal’.