How the Xi Jinping “Successful Model” of Fighting Covid-19 is Embedded in a Social Media Video
I agree that China has saved lives by implementing hard line approach to Covid-19 containment, but the policy is starting to appear worse than the disease.
Fighting back tears, she shouts abuse at the hazmat-suited workers below in a video that has recently gone viral on social media platform Weibo and which appears to encapsulate the Chinese public’s growing frustration with their government’s uncompromising zero-Covid policy.
The woman has been in a hotel for half a year since returning from university, yelling at the workers. They stare back, seemingly unmoved.
A professor at the National University of Singapore says that the zero- Covid policy is a consequence of the success of the’successful model of fighting Covid’ that he has already associated himself with.
That claim comes even as infections flare and a new strain circulates just days before the country’s most important political event, the Communist Party Congress beginning in Beijing on Sunday at which Xi Jinping is expected to cement his place as the country’s most powerful leader in decades.
Observers across the world will be watching the twice-a-decade meeting for signs of the party’s priorities when it comes to its zero-Covid stance, which has been blamed for exacerbating mounting problems in the economy, from stalled growth to a collapsing housing market.
Say yes to food when the Covid test is asked. No to lockdown, yes to freedom. No to lies, yes to dignity. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. Yes, to vote for a great leader. Don’t be a slave, be a citizen,” one banner read, while the other called for the removal of “dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping.”
Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, immediately censored search results for “Sitong Bridge,” the site of the protest. Key words such as Beijing,Haidian,warrior, andbrave man were restricted from search before long.
The super-app that is essential for daily life in China has been banned after it was found that several accounts had commented on the protest.
Many people spoke out about their support and awe. Some shared a Chinese pop hit in a nod to the protester who they called a hero, but others said that they’d never forget.
The Beijing-China fight against zero-Covid is winnable: Xi Jinping’s message to the world in the wake of the recent Covid-19 lockdowns
It didn’t take long for an answer. In his opening speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed the nation’s commitment to zero-Covid — a stance made all the more inviolable since securing his unprecedented third term.
More than 300 million people across dozens of cities in China had been affected by full or partial lockdowns at one point last month, according to CNN’s calculations.
Authorities in the city ordered six of its13 districts to shut down entertainment venues on Thursday after 47 Covid-19 cases were reported. Shanghai’s Disney resort has suspended some of its attractions and live performances since Sunday.
Some people in the city have reportedly been looking for water because of the risk of unpredictable and not-yet-proven snap lock downs.
That panic buying has been made worse by an announcement that Shanghai’s water authorities have taken action to ensure water quality after discovering saltwater inflows to two reservoirs at the mouth of the Yangtze River in September.
The increase in infections is not known and the authorities are racing to stop the spread of the strain of coronaviruses that has been found in China.
Despite the fact that China is a strict tourist destination, there has been an increase in cases in domestic tourist destinations.
More than 240,000 university students were locked down due to the latest outbreak, said a deputy director of the department. The communist party boss of a university was fired after 39 students from his institution tested positive for the disease.
Then there is the situation in far western Xinjiang, where some 22 million people have been banned from leaving the region and are required to stay home. Xinjiang recorded 403 new cases on Thursday, according to an official tally.
Beijing seems unwilling to move away from its hardline stance. For three days this week, the state-run Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily published commentaries reiterating that China would not let its guard down.
It said that the battle against Covid was winnable. Other countries that had reopened and eased restrictions had done so because they had no choice, it said, as they had failed to “effectively control the epidemic in a timely manner.”
Big data does not solve the problems of daily life: A case study of an urban man in Shanghai, after his first public drug embarrassment
The anointment of Xi as the leader of the party on Sunday, will be the most powerful in decades, and he is certain to get a third term.
As China’s Communist Party National Congress meets this week to approve the party’s priorities for the next five years, many are watching for signs restrictions could be loosened. But with Xi having personally tied himself to the policy, any change would need to come straight from the top – and from a leader, who throughout his rule, has sought to extend, not curtail, the party’s control on daily life.
China’s advanced online ecosystem – run on mobile phone superapps and ubiquitous QR codes – has offered arguably unrivaled convenience for consumers to shop, dine and travel. Technology can play a role in limiting daily life.
The system, which is separate from the health code scanning system still required in a reduced number of places in China, had used people’s cell phone data to track their travel history in the past 14 days in an attempt to identify those who have been to a city with zone designated “high-risk” by authorities.
Basic activities such as going to the grocery store and riding public transport depend on holding an up-to-date, negative Covid test and not being flagged as a close contact of a patient.
Going out in public can lead to being placed under the control of authorities into a mall or office building, and being barricaded in for a period of time, if you’re positive for a drug.
“(You see) all the flaws of big data when it has control over your daily life,” said one Shanghai resident surnamed Li, who spent a recent afternoon scrambling to prove he didn’t need to quarantine after a tracking system pinned his wife to a location near to where a positive case had been detected.
Li, who’d been with his wife at the time but received no such message, said they were eventually able to reach a hotline and explain their situation, ultimately returning her health code to green.
Dynamic zero-Covid: How important is it to keep putting people first and prioritizing life? A comment by Xi on Beijing’s Fourth Day at the Communist Party Reshuffle
“The essence of persisting with dynamic zero-Covid is putting people first and prioritizing life,” read a recent editorial in the People’s Daily – one of three along similar lines released by the party mouthpiece last week in an apparent bid to lower public expectation about any policy changes ahead of the Party Congress.
“What makes you think that you won’t be on that late-night bus one day?” read a viral comment, which garnered more than 250,000 likes before it was censored – one of a number of glimpses into rising frustration with the cost of the policy.
Last week, a rare political protest in Beijing saw banners hung from a bridge along the capital’s busy Third Ring Road that zoned in on social controls under the policy.
Speaking before some 2,300 mostly surgical-mask clad Communist Party members at the opening of the party’s five-yearly leadership reshuffle on Sunday, Xi gave a sweeping endorsement of China’s Covid controls, saying the party had “protected the people’s health and safety to the greatest extent possible” and “made tremendous, encouraging achievements in both epidemic and social development.”
The impact of those controls has become sharper as they leave people struggling for access to food and medicine and grappling with lost income and a mental toll.
In the run up to the Party Congress, controls amplified – as local authorities around the country sought to tamp down on outbreaks coinciding with the major political event.
“At the same time, the threat posed by Covid is reduced because of the higher vaccine coverage and the availability of antivirals. Taken together, I think the point has already been crossed where continuing zero-Covid could be considered a cost-effective strategy,” he said, adding that maintaining high vaccine coverage was key for a planned transition away from zero-Covid.
China could drop the zero- Covid policy, but some of the key components could be retained and re-used, as was pointed out by Jiang by saying, “This is a possible scenario.”
The focus should be on preparing and getting better access to the most effective vaccines, since it would be foolish to keep strict controls and closed borders since the disease will still be in circulation outside China.
“If you look at earlier periods in the People’s Republic of China’s history … what you see is in some ways almost the opposite in terms of really strong vaccination programs that work quite hard to convince people, particularly elderly people, to receive vaccines against infectious diseases,” Brazelton says.
“The vaccines take time, the ICU expansion takes time – and if you don’t see effort to prepare for the change, that implies that they are not planning to change the policy any time soon,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
China’s new zero-Covid restrictions pushed back in the public ireland after a week of massive anti-COVID-19 protest
When petitions were lost in rural banks because their health codes turned red, the health code system was used to diffuse social protest.
China has reduced the amount of time travelers entering the country must spend in quarantine and removed a major restriction on international flights, in a sign of a limited easing of its stringent zero-Covid policy.
The new measures were announced on Friday after the top decision-making body of the communist party decided to maintain Covid protocols while stressing the need to minimize economic and social disruptions.
The zero-tolerance approach has faced increasing challenges from highly transmissible new variants and has drawn mounting public backlash.
The easing of the measures will see authorities scrap the so-called “circuit breaker” mechanism, under which China-bound flights were suspended if an airline was found to carry a certain number of passengers who tested positive for Covid upon landing.
The pre-departure test requirement for incoming international passengers has been reduced from two to one and they will be required to be in a centralized area for five days after arriving in the US.
Markets responded positively to the changes as Covid-19 restrictions have kept international investors jittery. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shot up over 7% just after noon break, while the mainland China S&P500 index rose 2.5%.
Under the new guidelines, people who are identified as close contacts of Covid-19 cases will also have shortened quarantine at centralized government-operated facilities, down from seven days plus another three days at home, to five days and three days at home.
The commission said thatoptimizing and adjusting the rules doesn’t amount to a relaxation ofprevention and control measures but that the latest steps were being taken to adapt the new characteristics of the virus.
On Thursday, there were 10,535 new domestically transmitted cases reported by the government, the highest in months and the authorities were bracing for the situation to get worse.
The epidemic is likely to further expand in scope and scale because of the winter and spring weather factors, according to the National Health Commission.
Will the Chinese Communist Party Congress Leave its Zero-Covid Policy? A Commentary on China’s Censorship Dispatch
Editor’s Note: Matthew Bossons is an editor and journalist based in Shanghai. He has lived in China since 2014. The opinions in this commentary are his own. Take a look at the opinions on CNN.
In the lead-up to China’s Communist Party Congress last month, watercooler chatter in many offices here focused on a single question: Will the Congress abandon its zero-Covid policy?
Students are back to remote learning in many Chinese cities. My 5-year-old daughter is on her second week off school after her kindergarten closed due to restrictions related to Covid-19. She has spent more time at her house in 12 years than she has in the classroom.
Restrictions at a moment’s notice have made it nearly impossible to plan more than 20 minutes ahead of time. It is bad for business, but also affects ordinary peoples ability to go about their lives even if they are locked down in a mall or apartment.
In the event that they get trapped at the local pub, some friends have taken the risk of carrying a backpack full of clothes, luggage and work essentials in case they need them.
One in five urban youth in the country are jobless, business meetings and trade shows are being postponed or canceled, and workplaces are regularly shuttered over concerns about the coronavirus, including the recent lockdown at a Foxconn manufacturing center — which left employees literally fleeing down a highway.
I was told I needed to get in touch with the public health authorities after I had spent three days walking around and sitting maskless in an office.
You would presume that traveling from a city with a well-publicized disease outbreak would be enough to warrant immediate notice of self-isolation upon debarking the plane. Alas, not.
My wife and daughter were allowed to leave my apartment and wander around in the city at will, even though I needed to stay home for four days. I assume a policy intended to protect people’s health “to the greatest degree possible” would allow for such a risk, because my family is now carriers of the virus.
Social Media Controversy about the Lanzhou Cybercrime and the Covid-19 Anomaly: A Case Study on a Child in China
Demand for counseling services is up, and a nationwide survey conducted across China in 2020 found that nearly 35% of respondents were dealing with psychological distress amid the pandemic.
In the summer of 2007, a woman with anxiety disorders jumped to her death from a locked-down apartment building in the capital city of China.
Also this month, a 3-year-old boy died following a suspected gas leak at a locked-down residential compound in the western city of Lanzhou. On social media, the boy’s father alleged that he tried to alert local health workers to call an ambulance but was denied prompt access to emergency services due to his Covid-19 testing status.
“None of the fans are seen wearing face masks, or told to submit proof of Covid test results. Are they different from us on the planet? It was questioned whether China was right to insist on zero- Covid when it went viral.
Following the young boy’s death in Lanzhou, the internet rage machine was running at full capacity, with related hashtags on Weibo racking up hundreds of millions of views.
Anger was primarily directed at the government’s censorship of posts related to the incident and “excessive Covid-19 prevention measures.” There are videos online showing people in the city taking to the streets in a show of resistance, shouting at public health workers and police.
Positive public feedback is unlikely to lead to any immediate changes in zero- Covid. It is possible for the government to reexamine its position if the economic situation does not improve.
CNN follows Zhou’s video chat with the Beijing government over Covid restrictions – and it doesn’t seem like a big deal
CNN published a version of the story in their Meanwhile in China newsletter, where it was updated three times a week to show how China is effecting the world. You need to sign up here.
Zhou last saw his father alive in a video chat on November 1 after their home on the far outskirts of Beijing was locked down.
The apartment building where Zhou’s parents and his son lived did not have any cases at the time, but they didn’t even know the Covid restrictions had been imposed.
Zhou told CNN in Beijing that his dad was killed by the local government. He said he’s received no explanation about why the ambulance took so long to arrive, just a death certificate stating the wrong date of death.
Zhou contacted several state media outlets in Beijing for his story, but they didn’t show up. Amid growing desperation and anger, he turned to foreign media – despite knowing the risk of repercussions from the government. CNN is only using his surname to mitigate that risk.
In the central city of Zhengzhou, workers clashed with security officers over a delay in bonus payment and chaotic Covid rules at the world’s biggest iPhone assembly factory.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/25/china/china-zero-covid-discontent-reopening-mic-intl-hnk/index.html
The COVID-19 lock down in Shanghai: protests against the government’s anti-covid policy in the country’s southern metropolis
A resident in the southwest metropolis of Chongqing gave a speech about the Covid lock down on his house. “Without freedom, I would rather die!” He shouted to the crowd, who hailed him a hero, and wrestled him from the grasp of several police officers who were attempting to take him away.
Many football fans in China who have only been able to watch from home due to restrictions are angry online, as tens of thousands of loud fans crowd stadiums for the World Cup in Qatar.
There are signs that Chinese officials are starting to feel the heat from the growing discontent, which came on top of the heavy social and economic tolls.
Instead of relaxing controls, many local officials are reverting to the zero-tolerance playbook, attempting to stamp out infections as soon as they flare up.
The northern city of Shijiazhuang was among the first to cancel mass testing. It allowed the students to come back to school after they finished their online classes. Police ordered residents to stay home on Monday because the cases rose over the weekend.
On Tuesday, financial hub Shanghai banned anyone arriving in the city from entering venues including shopping malls, restaurants, supermarkets and gyms for five days. The cultural and entertainment venues were shut down in half of the city.
In Guangzhou, the district where the protest took place was locked down for the fifth time.
Despite relaxed rules, restaurants were mostly closed or empty in the capital. Many businesses are having difficulty finding enough staff who haven’t gotten infected. Sanlitun, one of Beijing’s most popular shopping districts, was deserted despite having its anti-COVID-19 fences taken down in recent days.
For their part, Chinese officials have repeatedly denied that the 20 measures listed in the government guidelines were meant for a pivot to living with the virus.
Zhou said the zero-covid policy was beneficial to the majority but it had been too restrictive at the local level.
“I don’t want things like this to happen again in China and anywhere in the world,” he said. I lost my father. My son’s grandfather passed away. I am furious right now.
China’s Zero-Covid Relative Relaxation Reaction: A Moment of Relief and Uncertainty after the Open Tube Pandemic
Workers across China have dismantled some of the physical signs of the country’s zero-Covid controls, peeling health code scanning signs off metro station walls and closing some checkpoints after the government unveiled an overhaul of its pandemic policy.
While the changes were greeted with relief by many and sparked discussion online of freer travel within the country – and perhaps even international travel in the future – there was also a sense of uncertainty about what lay ahead.
“The world changed overnight, and that’s really amazing,” said Echo Ding, 30, a manager at a tech company in Beijing. I feel like we are starting to get back to normal. This is important to me because if I don’t get back to a normal life, I might lose my mind.”
“How can it change so fast?” “So, do you want to?” Ding asked. It makes me feel like we’re fools. It is up to them. It was said it was good so I feel good about it. I have no choice but to view it as so realistic. All I can do is follow the arrangement.”
David Wang, 33, a freelancer in Shanghai, said although the changes were welcome, they had also sparked a feeling of disbelief in the city, which underwent a chaotic, more than two-month-long, citywide lockdown earlier this year.
“Of course I was very happy about these new changes – (but) most of my friends are showing typical signs of PTSD, they just can’t believe it’s happening,” he said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/china/china-zero-covid-relaxation-reaction-intl-hnk/index.html
What to do if you are infected with Omicron: Science evidence and the public opinion on the changes to the WHO WHO WHO rule
Top health officials in Beijing on Wednesday said the changes to the rules were based on scientific evidence, including the spread of the comparatively milder Omicron variant, the vaccination rate, and China’s level of experience in responding to the virus.
The health code tracking rules it relied on to control viral spread were rolled back last Wednesday by top health officials. Some aspects of those measures, such as health code use in designated places and central quarantine of severe cases, as well as home isolation of cases, remain.
The government and state media had long emphasized the dangers of the virus and its potential long-term effects – and used this to justify the maintenance of restrictive policies.
Now, a flood of articles highlighting the more mild nature of Omicron and downplaying its risks have created a feeling of whiplash for some, and fall well short of the kind of public messaging campaigns that some other countries carried out before their own pandemic policy changes.
On China’s heavily moderated social media platform Weibo, topics and hashtags related to what to do if infected by Omicron trended high on Thursday morning, while there were numerous reports of panic buying of fever medications.
“People were not told what kind of medicine they should have and what they should do if infected until there was widespread infection. Sam Wang, 26, a lawyer in Beijing, said that they should have started doing this a long, long time ago.
Others expressed concerns about living with the virus. Aurora Hao, 27, an English teacher in Beijing said: “I want to keep myself safe, because I could be fine after my first infection, but if I am reinfected a second or third time, I’m not sure what harm that will bring to my body.”
Meanwhile, his mother was now buying high-grade N95 masks and preparing for a “nuclear winter” until a potential initial wave of cases passed, Wang said.
The Impact of New COVID-19 Measures on the Public Health System in China: Implications for Health Codes and High-Risk Areas
Already there has been some contradiction in how the guidelines are implemented as local authorities adjust – and many are watching to see the impact in their cities.
In Beijing, authorities on Wednesday said a health code showing a negative Covid-19 test would still be required for dining in at restaurants or entering some entertainment venues – in conflict with the national guidelines.
Following the government’s announcement last week that it was ending some of the most drastic measures, a new move has been made. That follows three years of lockdowns, travel restrictions and quarantines on those moving between provinces and cities, mandated testing, and requirements that a clean bill of health be shown to access public areas.
But the government hasn’t stated the goal of its new policy, which could create confusion, says Huang. “These measures will very likely lead to a messy and hasty transition process where local governments ditch all the zero-COVID measures without investing seriously in preparing for the transition,” says Huang, who would have liked to have seen the reopening happen in phases.
But researchers say some aspects of the new rules are ambiguous and open to interpretation by local governments, including when and where to test people during an outbreak, what defines high-risk areas and how to manage them.
Many people in China live in densely populated high-rise buildings, where it will be difficult to limit transmission. Allowing people to quarantine at home will contribute to viral spread, says George Liu, a public-health researcher at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. This could overwhelm hospitals.
The timing of the reopening is not ideal, say researchers. There is a rise in the number of patients in the winter because of the flu. A Yale University economist who studies China’s public-health system says many people will be travelling for the lunar new year and spring festival.
China does not have a strong system for primary medical care, so it is up to the patient to choose whether to go to a hospital for more serious conditions or if they want to stay at home.
Without additional support, the eased restrictions might not help businesses to recover from protracted lockdowns or remove the social stigma attached to COVID-19, says Joy Zhang, a sociologist at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. “I’m afraid that the health and socio-economic risk will be passed on to individuals.”
Urgent guidance is needed on how to curb transmission during a surge, such as through mask mandates, work-from-home policies and temporary school closures, says Cowling. Because of the reduction in testing, it is not certain how officials will track whether cities have passed or are approaching the peak of an epidemic, he says.
Vaccination policy in the elderly: a case study at a Shanghai vaccination center and its implications for vaccination policy among the elderly and the elderly
There is “serious vaccine hesitancy”, among older people, and a general lack of trust in medical professionals, says Liu. Many older people live in rural and remote areas so it will take time to vaccinate them, says Xi Chen.
The guidelines propose setting up mobile clinics, and training medical staff to address people’s safety concerns to boost vaccination. But they stop short of issuing vaccine mandates or introducing strong incentives for local governments to increase their vaccination rates, says Huang. Whether the inevitable rise in infections will lead to a spike in deaths remains to be seen. He says the full impact still hasn’t been unfolded.
“I have an advantage in that I don’t go to an office to work. I don’t have a job at a company or in a government agency and don’t really come into contact with a lot of people,” she says. “Also I think I protect myself pretty well.”
Despite a push to boost vaccinations among the elderly, two centers set up in Beijing to administer shots were empty Tuesday except for medical personnel. There was no evidence of a huge spike in patient numbers despite fears of a large outbreak.
Why vaccine ignorance persists in China and what they’re doing about it: A case study of Tan Hua’s viral vaccine refusal during her childhood
Product quality issues have plagued manufacturing in China for years, including its production of pharmaceuticals. Cases like Tan Hua’s resonate.
In 2014, Tan, then 34 years old, was bitten by a dog. Her mother said that they were told it was the best rabies vaccine on the market when she saw a doctor. It did not go well.
“That very night she got a headache and dizziness. Her memory fell apart very quickly. She had convulsions. She couldn’t see, it was dark for her. He told NPR that she couldn’t walk straight.
They blame the vaccine, and Hua has been on a crusade for justice ever since. China has approved 12 vaccines, of which she now avoids.
A string of product quality scandals in China have been caused by weak oversight and corruption during the recent decades of rapid economic growth.
Yanzhong Huang, a China health care expert at Seton Hall University, says the government has done a bad job of messaging around the virus and debunking myths — despite near total control of the media environment in the country.
Many vaccine skeptics are liberal-minded. They just don’t trust the Chinese vaccines and the government narrative on the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccines,” he says.
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/12/09/1140830315/why-vaccine-hesitancy-persists-in-china-and-what-theyre-doing-about-it
COVID-19: a “flu thing” that shouldn’t be vaccinated at all? A comment on the real estate executive in Shanghai
Jerry is 33 and is a real estate executive in Shanghai. He did not want his full name used because of the sensitivity of the topic.
Jerry reckons COVID-19 is “kind of a flu thing” these days; nothing too serious. He hasn’t gotten the vaccine and he believes – despite science to the contrary – there’s no point.
The virus is changing very fast. He says that vaccine’s ability to prevent transmission rather than stave off serious illness and death is the reason it is so not a single vaccine can help.
Jerry thinks that the vaccination rate among his friends may be as low as 60 percent. He said that some couples are scared of the possible side effects of having a baby.
Only about half of people aged 60 and up in Hong Kong were vaccinated when the omicron variant hit in the spring. The rate of deaths per 100,000 people increased to the highest in the world. Nearly all of those who died were over 60 and not fully vaccinated.
But Huang, of Seton Hall, says the government may be better off bolstering the incentives for people to get the vaccine, and offering assurances of support in case something goes wrong.
The Covid-19 epidemic in China: State media, local authorities, and the state of the health system in the wake of the cancellation of the mobile itinerary card
Changes continued Monday as authorities announced a deactivation of the “mobile itinerary card” health tracking function planned for the following day.
It had been a point of contention for many Chinese people, including due to concerns around data collection and its use by local governments to ban entry to those who have visited a city with a “high-risk zone,” even if they did not go to those areas within that city.
But as the scrapping of parts of the zero-Covid infrastructure come apace, there are questions about how the country’s health system will handle a mass outbreak.
Media outlet China Youth Daily documented hours-long lines at a clinic in central Beijing on Friday, and cited unnamed experts calling for residents not to visit hospitals unless necessary.
Health workers in the capital were also grappling with a surge in emergency calls, including from many Covid-positive residents with mild or no symptoms, with a hospital official on Saturday appealing to residents in such cases not to call the city’s 911-like emergency services line and tie up resources needed by the seriously ill.
In the last few days, the Beijing Emergency Center received more than 30,000 calls per day, Chen said according to the official media.
In an interview with state media, a Covid-19 expert said Covid was spreading rapidly and was driven by Omicron variants in China.
No matter how strong the control and prevention is, it will be difficult to completely eliminate the transmission chain, as has been stated by a key public voice.
It’s difficult to gauge the extent of the spread because of the rapid roll back of testing nationwide, and the shift by many people to use antigen tests at home.
The move to lift its measures may cause a surge in cases, according to outside experts, who warned that China could be unprepared.
Zhong, in the state media interview, said the government’s top priority now should be booster shots, particularly for the elderly and others most at risk, especially with China’s Lunar New Year coming up next month – a peak travel time where urban residents visit elderly relatives and return to rural hometowns.
Measures to be undertaken include increasing ICU wards and beds, enhancing medical staff for intensive care and setting up more clinics for fevers, China’s National Health Commission said in a statement.
Experts warn a lack of experience with the virus and years of state media coverage focusing on its importance overseas could push those who are not in dire need to seek medical care.
Beijing (AP) – The onset of China’s zero-COVID crisis after the Decay of the Fourth Lunar Reaction on Covid-19
China’s market watchdog said on Friday that there was a “temporary shortage” of some “hot-selling” drugs and vowed to crackdown on price gouging, while major online retailer JD.com last week said it was taking steps to ensure stable supplies after sales for certain medications surged 18 times that week over the same period in October.
A doctor in Beijing said in a state media interview that people who tested positive for Covid-19 but did not have any noticeable symptoms could not be treated with medication.
“People with asymptomatic inflections do not need medication at all. It is enough to rest at home, maintain a good mood and physical condition The chief infectious diseasephysician at Beijing You An Hospital said in an interview that has been viewed more than 400 million times that his topic is infectious disease.
BEIJING (AP) — China will drop a travel tracing requirement as part of an uncertain exit from its strict “zero-COVID” policies that have elicited widespread dissatisfaction.
In Beijing and other Chinese cities, protests over the restrictions led to calls for the president and the Communist Party to leave their posts. The party responded with a massive show of force and an unknown number of people were arrested at the protests or in the days following.
The relaxation has led to new concerns about the over use of health care resources in some areas.
At the same time, the government reversed course by allowing those with mild symptoms to recuperate at home rather than being sent to field hospitals that have become notorious for overcrowding and poor hygiene.
Reports on the Chinese internet stated that restrictions would continue to be dropped and that economic activity would eventually return to pre-pandemic conditions.
The economy lost 2.6% of its value in the three months ending in June and the government promised to reduce the cost and disruption. The economy is likely to have shrunk in the current quarter. In November, imports dropped 10.9% from a year ago, in line with weak demand.
Experts warn there’s a chance the ruling party will reverse its course and impose restrictions again if a large-scale outbreak ensues.
Last week’s announcement allowed considerable room for local governments to assign their own regulations. In Beijing, most restaurants still require a negative test result within the previous day and government offices are even more strict.
Lifting a neighbor’s quark by a banging door: What happened to a classmate who had tested positive for Covid-19?
The editor-in-chief of the China lifestyle magazine is Lars Hamer. He has lived in Guangzhou, China since 2018. The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author. Follow him on social media. CNN has an opinion on it.
Every resident dreads the knock. Early Tuesday morning, a sudden loud banging at the door of my apartment in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. My fear was washed over me when health care workers told everyone to go upstairs because of a neighbor who had tested positive for Covid-19.
There was a reason to worry. A teacher friend of mine and his colleagues got sent to centralized quark for a student who was positive for Covid-19, just a month ago. I was worried about the same thing happening to me.
To my surprise, nothing of the sort. I took a test that was disappointing. Before my result even came out, I was free to leave my house and go about my day, totally unrestricted.
If this had occurred a few weeks earlier, my friend and I would have been labeled a close contact, and therefore powerless to get away from the facility.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/opinions/china-covid-restrictions-lifted-guangzhou-hamer/index.html
Living in a ghost town with COVID-19: Guangzhou’s medical crisis and the travel rush during the Lunar New Year
I moved to Guangzhou five years ago and found it to be a Covid-19 ghost town with a population of 15 million.
Just look at the new measure forbidding the blocking of fire exits in the event of a lockdown, for example. People who are diagnosed with an infectious disease can be at home with their families. Quarantine facilities are soon to be a thing of the past.
Friends and families who had not seen each other for months gathered in bars and restaurants, and QR codes were being ripped down from walls; our movements no longer tracked.
It was the only thing to do in this country, businesses had closed, and millions of people were trapped in their homes. I felt the strain and started to think about leaving the country.
It was a moment of pure disbelief. The numbers of cases in Guangzhou were as large as those in the city that went on a lockdown in April.
BEIJING — Some Chinese universities say they will allow students to finish the semester from home in hopes of reducing the potential of a bigger COVID-19 outbreak during the January Lunar New Year travel rush.
The number of schools participating was not clear, but universities in nearby cities said students would have the option of returning home early or staying on campus for tests every 48 hours. China’s busiest travel season is the month of January because of the lunar New Year.
Over the past three years, universities have been the scene of multiple lockdowns and confrontations between the authorities and students who are locked in dorm rooms.
Chinese Embassy in Shenyang and Wuhan: Announcing the end of the strictest measures against COVID-19 and its asymptomatic nature
The move follows the government’s dramatic announcement last week that it was ending many of the strictest measures, following three years during which it enforced some of the world’s tightest virus restrictions.
Travelers coming from the southern city will be able to dine in restaurants and go to bars after three days, after the government took a further step Tuesday. It would also scrap the use of its contact-tracing app, although vaccine requirements to enter venues like restaurants will remain in place. The new measures take effect Wednesday.
The easing of control measures on the mainland means a sharp drop in obligatory testing from which daily infections numbers are compiled, but cases appear to be rising rapidly, with many testing themselves at home and staying away from hospitals.
China’s government-supplied figures have not been independently verified and questions have been raised about whether the ruling Communist Party has sought to minimize numbers of cases and deaths.
Since Tuesday, the U.S. consulates in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang and the central city of Wuhan have been offering only emergency services “in response to increased number of COVID-19 cases,” the State Department said.
Mission China makes every effort to ensure that American citizens living in the People’s Republic of China have access to full consular services.
The daily report of the National Health Commission has been scaled down in response to a decline in the test for the human immunodeficiency virus.
A notice on the commission’s website said it stopped publishing daily figures on numbers of COVID-19 cases where no symptoms are detected since it was “impossible to accurately grasp the actual number of asymptomatic infected persons,” which have generally accounted for the vast majority of new infections. The only numbers they’re reporting are confirmed cases detected in public testing facilities.
Beijing has grown eerily quiet despite the fact that there are more fever clinics and places to get cold and flu medication.
People were waiting for the results of their nucleic acid tests at the Beijing clinic. Nurses in full-body white protective gear are checking out patients.
There were a dozen people waiting in a line of blue tents at the hospital. A person sprayed a bottle of rinnt around a woman waiting in the queue.
Across the street at Gaoji Baikang Pharmacy, around a dozen people waited in line for cough medication and Chinese herbal remedies. The front of the store has a sign that says “avoid panic and hoarding, we are doing all we have to to fulfill your needs.” A man who was coming out said that each customer was restricted from buying more than one package of the Chinese herbal remedy.
Hospitals have also been struggling to remain staffed because of a shortage of China’s ubiquitous motorized tricycle delivery drivers.