Beijing’s abrupt dismantling of zero-Covid controls has been welcomed by economists, even as the country braces itself for the human impact of letting the disease spread through a vulnerable population. The leadership’s abrupt U-turn on how it handles the pandemic appears to have been triggered by protests against controls that began last month, a nationwide show of discontent on a scale China had not seen in decades. But that unrest came after growing concern about the toll that isolation and regular harsh lockdowns were having on the country’s economy. China has been an engine for regional growth since last century….