The Impact of Covid-19 on Child Arrival, Childhood Arrival and Homecoming in China: Reflection of Wu’s Advice to the Mom of a Newcomer

Matthew Bossons is a journalist and editor who is based in China. He has resided in China for the last three years. His views are not reflected in this commentary. View more opinion on CNN.

This adjustment, though, seems redundant considering Wu’s second piece of advice is to avoid close contact with anyone coming from or transiting through monkeypox epidemic areas. foreigners in China have either been in the country since the start of the Pandemic or have undergone a Covid-19 bicyle upon entry so it is pointless to target them.

The advice was immediately picked up and publicized by state-backed media outlets after Wu blasted it out to his half a million followers on Weibo.

For three consecutive years, these homecoming trips have been discouraged by authorities under the zero-Covid policy. The experts warn that the virus could move through China due to lack of medical resources and low vaccine rates.

Infamously, many of the city’s African residents were expelled from their residences and denied access to hotels despite having not left the country since the pandemic began. As the subway was becoming more crowded, taxis refused to pick up foreigners, gyms turned away non- Chinese people, and expats were forced to use the next carriage because of fear of contracting the virus.

These memories came flooding back in the wake of Wu’s social media post. And while I pondered how local commuters may receive me on the bus to work the following Monday, a bigger concern loomed: How would my five-year-old daughter be treated by her peers at the local kindergarten she attends in our new home base of Shanghai. In July 2020 we moved from Guangzhou to Beijing, and in July 2021 from Beijing to Shanghai.

Evelyn, my daughter, does not look Chinese, despite her Chinese ancestry, and my wife often points that out to her. Among her classmates who are all Chinese, she is the only one who stands out.

Evelyn came home from school Monday and told her mom that she wanted to look Chinese. Visibly upset, she said that some of her classmates had taunted her with calls of “waigouren,” meaning ‘foreigner’ in Mandarin Chinese.

Now known as China’s “zero-Covid” czar, Ms. Sun has become the enforcer of the country’s strict pandemic restrictions. When she arrives in a city in the midst of an outbreak, she is often the online target of derision and frustration, cast as a doomsayer that a lockdown is coming.

Words from power carry weight and carelessness of words can cause other racist segments of society. We know this because Donald Trump used the term “kung flu” and many other words, making it easy for the racists to spread their ideas and increase the number of anti-Asian incidents.

China is facing its largest flare-up of Covid cases in a month, complicating its preparations for an all-important Communist Party meeting where Xi Jinping is expected to expand his authority and claim another term in power. Provincial and local officials have vowed to stop the spread of the coronavirus from “spilling over” to Beijing, the capital, where the meeting will be held.

Zhou is one of many who are dissatisfied with China’s insistence that it is necessary to protect people from a virus that has killed about six people from tens of thousands of cases.

The woman has been under quarantine for half a year since returning from university in the summer, she shouts at the workers. The people stare back.

No to the H1N1 Protest on Weibo and WeChat, or Are You a Hero? A Global View on China’s Z0CDM

The battle against the H1N1 is still going strong in China, despite the fact that many Asian economies are abandoning their previous restrictions.

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.

No to the Covid test, yes to food. Yes, but not to lock up and not to have freedom. No to lies, yes to dignity. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. No to a great leader who can be voted on. 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. Before long, key words including “Beijing,” “Haidian,” “warrior,” “brave man,” and even “courage” were restricted from search.

Numerous accounts on Weibo and WeChat, the super-app essential for daily life in China, have been banned after commenting on – or alluding to – the protest.

Still, many spoke out to express their support and awe. Some posted a picture of a Chinese pop hit called “Lonely Warrior” in a reference to the protester, who they called a “hero.” Others posted a photo of a picture of a Chinese pop hit called “I saw it.”

The China fight against Covid-19: state media, China’s public discontent, and the lack of a clear unified plan post-Congress

Yet even in the face of rising public discontent, all the signs suggest Xi and his party plan to stick with the zero-Covid approach, possibly into 2023, with the state media articles this week serving to dampen speculation the country may change tack post-Congress.

Last month, CNN counted more than 70 Chinese cities placed under full or partial Covid lockdowns in a period of a couple weeks, impacting more than 300 million people.

20% of the cases detected in Beijing were caused by Covid-19, according to authorities. CNN reporting from the city indicates the case count in the Chinese capital could be much higher than recorded.

Some people in the city are having trouble with their water because of the possibility of unpredictable and unexplained snap lockdowns.

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.

Despite China’s Golden Week holiday being a reason for people not to travel or spend money in the country, domestic tourist destinations have been seeing an increase in cases.

More than 240,000 university students in Inner Mongolia have been locked down on campuses due to the latest outbreak, according to Zhang Xiaoying, a deputy director of the regional Department of Education. The Communist Party boss at the university was sacked after 39 students from his institution tested positive for the disease.

The western part of China’s far western Xinjiang region has 22 million people banned from leaving and required to stay. There were over 300 new cases on Thursday, according to an official tally.

Yet amid it all, Beijing appears unwilling to move 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.

The battle against Covid was winnable, it insisted. 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.”

The Communist Party sent top officials in order to deal with the political crisis in regards to the first coronaviruses outbreak in early 2020. One of them stayed for three months, working to get protective gear for health workers and hospital beds for patients.

Calling for absolute loyalty in a war against the virus, Ms. Sun warned that any deserters would be “nailed to the pillar of historical shame forever.”

Influence of Big Data on China’s Health Code: A Tribute to a Man Trapped in a Pandemic Hot Spot

It is a role that she has become accustomed to, as the rare woman in Chinese politics she drives the Communist Party’s will and carries the country’s criticism. “Women most of the time get pushed to the frontline when male politicians don’t want to deal with a crisis,” said Hanzhang Liu, assistant professor of politics at Pitzer College.

In just more than three years, it is poised to be decided which leader is the most powerful in China and which one is the most boring.

Many are watching the congress for signs that the restrictions could be loosened. Any change to the policy would need to come 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 plays a role in constraining daily life.

At midnight on Monday, the smart phone app will cease to function, meaning residents’ travels will not be traced and recorded, potentially reducing the likelihood they will be forced into quarantine for visiting pandemic hot spots. China’s Communist Party does not allow any independent parties to conduct verification, and other apps have been used before to suppress travel and free speech. The health code is part of a package of apps.

In the US, a negative Covid test is required for basic activities like going to the grocery store, riding public transport, and entering an office building.

Going outside in public can be risky, as if someone were to test positive, the authorities would barricade the building or put someone under a quarantine so that they wouldn’t get any other chance to test positive.

Li, a man whose wife was trapped by a tracking system near the location where a positive case was found, said that big data had many flaws when it was in charge of daily life.

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.

The End of the Communist Party: Preventing COVID-19 Vaccine Outbreaks and Delaying the Birth of the First Born Child

“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.

One of the many signs of growing displeasure with the policy was a comment that said what makes people think they will not be on the bus one day.

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 Communist Party members at the opening of their fifth leadership shake up on Sunday, the leader said the party had protected the health and safety of all of China.

But for the citizens back home who are trapped in lockdown, recurring issues like accessing prompt medical care or enough food and supplies, or losing work and income – have over and over again led to hardship and tragedy, including numerous deaths believed to be linked to delayed access to medical care.

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.

The threat posed by Covid has been reduced due to higher vaccine coverage and availability of drugs. 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.

Outside experts say that, since the virus will stay in circulation beyond China, keeping tight controls and closed borders is just delaying the inevitable, and the focus should be on preparing, for example through raising elderly vaccination rates and increasing ICU capacity, as well as getting or expanding access to the most effective vaccines and treatments.

China has relied on locally produced shots which do not produce as many protective antibodies compared to the vaccines developed in the West.

“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.

What will the zero-Covid policy look like? The example of China’s “Chariot” system and its impact on social protests in China

Already the health code system has been used to diffuse social protest – with petitioners who lost their savings in rural banks barred from protesting after their health codes inexplicably turned red.

Huang said he does not expect any fundamental changes to the zero-Covid policy in the short term. The incentive structure of local governments hasn’t been changed. They are still held accountable for the Covid situation in their jurisdiction,” he said.

The Communist Party rule of China has been marked by a number of public campaigns designed to bring in Chinese people into the service of the state.

The most harmful aspect of the campaign is that it allows citizens to be tracked by authorities and that it is meant to suppress Covid, but that is what this will end up doing. The system that government officials used to restrict the movements of people who wanted to take part in a protest in China in June is referred to as the “Chariot” system. Those officials were later punished, but the fact remains that the government now has a system that Mao Zedong could only have dreamed of, powered by data and algorithms, to monitor and control the people.

Even if the ability to govern decreases even in the absence of any particular policy from the top, the ineptitude, brutality, and stupidity of lower-level officials will brew disasters for the common people they rule over.

Many business people lost money because of the government shutting down cities and locking millions of people in their homes for weeks at a time as they try to eliminate the coronaviruses.

“Politicianically Depressed” Chine: A Tech Mogul Tells Us: Limits on the Disruption of Zero-Covid Rules

Despite many conversations over the years, we never talked about politics. I was surprised when he called after the party congress to talk about his “political depression.” He said that he used to think that the Chinese were the most hard-working people in the world. Now, he and many of his friends spend most of their time hiking, golfing and drinking. “We’re too depressed to work,” he said.

The start-up was doing so well he was planning to public it. When the cities were locked down under the “zero- Covid” rules, he lost a lot of revenue and his new hires sat on the sideline. He said now he has no choice but to lay off more than 100 people, sell his business and move his family to North America.

The tech mogul from Beijing wrote to me after the congress that it was a chilling experience. In May, when there were rumors that Beijing could be locked down, he felt he could not tell his employees to leave work early and stock up on groceries. He was worried that he could be reported for spreading rumors — something that had gotten people detained by the police. He told them only that they should feel free to leave early if they had things to take care of.

Earlier this month, the Chinese government released a 20-point guideline to limit the disruption of zero-Covid rules on daily life and the economy. It shortened the period of quark from 10 to eight days for close contacts and inbound travelers. It also scrapped quarantine requirements for secondary contacts, discouraged unnecessary mass testing drives and removed a major restriction on international flights.

The decision-making body of the Communist Party announced new measures Friday after a meeting in which leaders promised to maintain Covid protocols while emphasizing the need to minimize economic and social disruptions.

COVID-19: More than 10,000 cases reported in Hong Kong and mainland China under new zero-tolerance guidelines, and implications for the nature of the virus

Growing challenges from highly transmissible new variant have put a strain on the zero-tolerance approach.

The so-called “circuitbreaker” mechanism, under which China-bound flights were suspended if an airline had passengers with Covid, will be scrapped under the new measures.

Inbound international passengers will also see their pre-departure test requirement reduced from two to one, and their mandatory centralized quarantine upon arrival cut from seven days to five days, followed by another three days of home isolation.

The changes were welcomed by markets, however the Covid-19 restrictions have kept investors on edge. Just after noon break local time, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shot up 7% while the mainland China’s benchmark index rose 2.5%.

Under the new guidelines close contacts of Covid-19 cases will have shortened their stay in government-operated facilities, which was previously seven days, to four days and three days, respectively.

The National Health Commission said the latest actions were being taken to adjust the new characteristics of the virus and the COVID prevention situation, despite the fact thatoptimizing and adjusting the rules do not amount to a relaxation of prevention and control measures.

There were 10,535 new domestically transmitted cases on Thursday, the highest amount in months and the authorities were prepared for it to get worse.

The National Health Commission warned that the epidemic “is likely to further expand in scope and scale” due to mutations and weather factors in the winter and spring.

Three Years of Pandemics: When Covid-19 Arises, Why Does China Let Us Go Out? Why Do Some Chinese Cities Leave Their Families Behind Close Families?

Students in many cities in China are back to remote learning. 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 had more time at home in 2022 than 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 it also affects ordinary people who don’t have much of a choice as to where they live, work or play.

Some friends who have suffered through a lock-up have taken to carrying a backpack full of clothes, shoes, and accessories with them at all times in case they are trapped at the pub.

Similar scenes are playing out across Beijing, as offices, shops and residential communities report being understaffed or shifting working arrangements as employees fall ill with the virus. Meanwhile, others stay home to avoid being infected.

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.

But here’s the real kicker: While I needed to stay home for four days, my wife and daughter, who live with me, were allowed to leave the apartment and wander around the city at will. I assume the policy was designed to protect people’s health to the greatest extent possible, but why did it allow for a high risk to public health?

In three years, riots, riots, and epidemic prevention have caused havoc in various parts of China, and they have destroyed the mental health of ordinary people.

A 55 year old woman jumped to her death from her locked-down apartment building in Beijing, China, due to her anxiety disorders.

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.

The Chinese government never officially acknowledged the anti-zero-Covid protests that erupted following a fire that killed at least 10 people in an apartment block in Urumqi last month. It seems like the recent changes to the national response to the Pandemic was meant to acknowledge that mistakes were made.

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.

The government censoring posts related to the incident and excessive Covid-19 prevention measures was the main reason for Anger. Unverified videos circulating online show city residents taking to the streets in a rare show of resistance, shouting at what appears to be public health workers and riot police.

For those hoping for a swift end to zero-Covid, the negative public feedback is unlikely to result in any immediate changes. But if the economic situation does not improve and discontent grows, it could force the government to reevaluate its position — it has happened before.

Protests over Covid lockdown in China’s southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou: a united voice for economic and social interests

Residents under Covid lockdown in China’s southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou have torn down barriers meant to confine them to their homes, taking to the streets in defiance of strictly enforced local orders, according to video and images circulating on social media.

Some of the images show large crowds cheering and surging across toppled barriers and filling streets after dark in the city’s Haizhu district, which has been under an increasingly restrictive lockdown since November 5, as the epicenter of the city’s ongoing Covid outbreak.

Multiple users on social media say that the sound of barriers falling is heard across the neighborhood and it is followed by cheers in the footage.

A level of dissent not seen in decades occurred last month in Beijing and many other cities because of protests over the restrictions. 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.

Zhang Yi, deputy director of the Guangzhou municipal health commission, told a news conference Monday that “pandemic containment measures” will be “enhanced” – a veiled reference for lockdowns – in the entirety of Liwan and Panyu districts, as well as parts of Haizhu and Yuexiu districts.

Top officials in Beijing, including Chinese leader Xi Jinping, have pledged that the measures should be balanced with economic and social interests. The new policy discourages unnecessary mass testing and restricts the classification of high risk areas.

They also largely scrapped the quarantining of secondary close contacts and reduced the time close contacts must spend in central quarantine – all changes officials insist are not a relaxation but a refinement of the policy.

It was intended that China would return to the world’s attention following the outbreak of the Pandemic and a meeting with the key Western leaders in person this month for the first time.

How Hubei is a city in China? The frustrations of a Chinese community of migrant workers in the Haizhu district

Guangzhou’s Haizhu district, where images showed nighttime protests, is home to a number of migrant workers living in densely packed buildings in areas known as “urban villages.”

Their circumstances can make the hardship of oppressive measures even worse because they may not know how many residents are in need of supplies in their housing block. There’s also no option of remote work to preserve income for those employed in factories and on construction sites.

In messages shared on social media, observers noted hearing Haizhu residents originally from outside Guangzhou pleading for help from officials such as compensation for rent and free supplies.

In a video circulating on social media, a man can be heard screaming “Us Hubei people want to eat! The people of Hubei would like to be sealed. referring to another province in China, where many migrant workers in the district come from. A crowd of people are facing a Covid workers in hazmat suits.

In a second clip of the same scene a man asks workers if their parents have gone sick. How would you react if your kids are kept from leaving for the hospital?

People in another video can be heard shouting out their frustrations and desperation to a man who identifies himself as the neighborhood director and says he wants to address their concerns. One resident rushes forward to say that as non-local residents they’re left to queue for hours for Covid-19 testing and the meat sold to them by the government has gone bad, while they can’t get through to local support hotlines.

The community office line is always busy due to nobody coming to explain. The landlord does not care if we live or die. What should we do? The crowd starts to shout together: “Unseal! Unseal!”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/15/china/china-covid-guangzhou-protests-intl-hnk/index.html

A Chinese citizen whose father was killed by the local government did not know the Covid restrictions had been announced at the start of November 2001, as revealed by the Even in China newsletter

In the city news conference Monday, a Haizhu district official acknowledged criticisms that restrictions could have been announced earlier and with more clarity on areas affected by the measures.

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

After their home was locked down, Zhou saw his father alive in a video chat on the afternoon of November 1, hours after they last saw him.

He said Zhou and his family didn’t even know the Covid restrictions had been put in place and the apartment building where Zhou’s parents lived didn’t have any cases.

Zhou said 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 said he contacted several state media outlets in Beijing to report on his story, but no reporters came. He turned to foreign media because of his desperation and anger, despite knowing the repercussions from the government. CNN is only using his surname to mitigate that risk.

Protests against the chaotic Covid lockdown in Zhengzhou: A hero’s cry for freedom, not a threat for humanity

In the central city of Zhengzhou, workers at the largest Apple factory clashed with security officers over delay in bonus payment and chaotic Covid rules.

On Thursday, in the city of Chongqing in southwest China, a resident gave a speech opposing the Covid lock down on his residential compound. “Without freedom, I would rather die!” He shouted to a crowd of people that he was a hero, and wrestled them from the grasp of police officers who had tried to take him away.

These acts of defiance echoed an outpouring of discontent online, notably from Chinese football fans – many under some form of lockdown or restrictions – who have only been able to watch from home as tens of thousands of raucous fans pack stadiums at the World Cup in Qatar.

There are signs that Chinese officials are feeling the heat of the growing public discontent, which came on top of the heavy social and economic tolls inflicted by the widening lockdowns.

Many local officials have reverted to a zero-tolerance approach to controlling infections, instead of relaxing controls.

The northern city of Shijiazhuang was among the first to cancel mass testing. It also allowed students to return to schools after a long period of online classes. Authorities told people to stay home on Monday as 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. Authorities also shut down cultural and entertainment venues in half of the city.

In Guangzhou, officials have locked down its most populous Baiyun district for the fifth time since the protest took place.

Despite relaxed rules, restaurants were mostly closed or empty in the capital. Businesses have trouble finding enough staff who aren’t contracted with a disease. The anti-COVID-19 fencing in Sanlitun, one of Beijing’s busiest shopping districts, was taken down in the last few 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.

On the outskirts of Beijing, Zhou said the zero- Covid policy had been too intrusive at a local level.

He doesn’t want things like this to happen again in China or anywhere in the world. I lost my dad. My son lost his grandpa. I’m furious now.”

The impact of the government’s anti-covid measures on the city’s health care system: “The world changed overnight,” said Wang, a Beijing tech executive

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.

But as many residents expressed relief and happiness at the obvious loosening of measures, some worried about its impact and questioned how the new rules would be rolled out.

The world changed overnight, and that is really amazing, said the Beijing based manager of a tech company. I think we are getting back to normal life. If I don’t get back to normal life, I might lose my mind.

“How can it change so fast?” Ding asked. I think we are like fools, it gives me that feeling. It is up to them. They said it’s good, so then it’s good … that’s what I feel right now. It is so realistic that I don’t have a choice. 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.

He said he was happy about the new changes, but that most of his friends were showing typical signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/china/china-zero-covid-relaxation-reaction-intl-hnk/index.html

The Beijing Patient’s Story: An Outburst in Beijing After a Large-Scale Reopening of Covid-19

The officials said the changes to the rules were based on scientific evidence and that China has more experience responding to the virus than any other country.

But the changes, which come on the heels of a wave of unprecendented protests across the country against harsh Covid restrictions, are a swift about-face for a government long bent on stamping out all infections. While health authorities made slight policy revisions and cautioned officials against overreach last month, the central government up until last week had shown no signs of preparing for an imminent shift in its national strategy.

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.

State media have already begun trying to change everyone’s thinking by downplaying the lethality of the Omicron variant. At the same time, a huge drive to vaccinate the elderly is underway.

Concerns about scarcity and access to medicines and care have been palpable in public discussion, including on social media. The story of a Beijing reporter being in a temporary hospital for Covid-19 treatment went public and was the cause of a huge uproar on social media in China.

People weren’t told what kind of medicine they should use or what to do if they got a serious illness. Sam Wang, the lawyer in Beijing, said that the policy release felt like it was hastily issued and that it should have been done a long time ago.

Bob Li, a graduate student in Beijing, who tested positive for the virus on Friday said he wasn’t afraid of it, but his mother was up all night worrying about him. Li said that the woman finds the virus a very scary thing.

People from cosmopolitan urban centers may be more willing to support relaxing rules in order to reopen China because of the fear of impact of Covid-19 within China.

How the Beijing Public Health Code is repealed and how to open the door to the national covid-19 test in a chaotic world: Forecasting the implications for health systems

Wang said that his mother was buying high-grade N95 masks to prepare for a nuclear winter until an initial wave of cases passed.

As local authorities adjust to how the guidelines are implemented, they’re not sure how they will affect 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.

This world of restrictions was quickly dismantled in a few days. On November 30, the Covid-19 testing sites that for so long had dictated our movements were all closed. Soon after, it was announced that lockdowns would only be allowed in “high-risk areas,” allowing businesses outside those areas to resume. The test would no longer be needed to enter them.

But the government hasn’t stated the goal of its new policy, which could create confusion, says Huang. There’s a chance that these measures will lead to a messy and hasty transition process, where the local governments ditch all the zero covid measures, without investing seriously in preparing for the transition, which is something I would have wanted to have seen happen in phases.

Some aspects of the new rules, for example when and where to test people during an outbreak and high-risk areas, are open to interpretation by local governments.

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. Hospitals could be overwhelmed by this.

The timing of the reopening isn’t ideal. Hospitals will see a rise in the number of patients during the flu season. And many people will also be travelling across the country for next month’s Lunar New Year and spring festival, further increasing viral spread, says Xi Chen, an economist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, who studies China’s public-health system.

On Sunday the number of patients visiting clinics was 16 times greater than a week before. In China, where there isn’t a strong primary care system, visiting the hospital is common for minor illness.

JoyZhang is a sociologist at the University of Kent in UK, she says that if the eased restrictions are not supported, they will not help businesses recover from lengthy lock downs or remove social stigma. I am afraid that the health and socio- economic risk will be handed on to individuals.

Cowling says that urgent guidance is needed on how to curb transmission during a surge, including through mask mandates, work from home policies and temporary school closings. He says that the reduction in testing makes it hard to know when the peak of the infections will occur.

Researchers are concerned that hasty changes will not leave enough time to ramp up vaccination among older people. Currently, some 70% of people aged 60 or older, and 40% of those aged 80 or more, have received a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

With fourth-dose vaccination coverage of 85% and antiviral coverage of 60%, the death toll can be reduced by 26% to 35%, according to the study, which is funded partly by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Hong Kong government.

The Beijing Emergency Center, which handles Covid-19 outbreaks, has not responded to the public since the cancellation of the mobile itinerary card health tracking function

On Monday, the mobile itinerary card health tracking function was canceled as authorities announced the deactivation of it the next 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.

The China Youth Daily cited unnamed experts saying that people should not visit hospitals unless absolutely necessary and that the long lines at the Beijing clinic were documented.

A hospital official in the capital appealed to residents with mild Covid-positive symptoms not to call an emergency services line after a surge in emergency calls.

The daily volume of emergency calls had surged from its usual 5,000 to more than 30,000 in recent days, Chen Zhi, chief physician of the Beijing Emergency Center said, according to official media.

Experts have said the relatively low number of previously infected Covid-19 patients in China and the lower effectiveness of its widely-used inactivated-virus vaccines against Omicron infection – as compared with previous strains and mRNA vaccines – could enable the virus to spread rapidly.

It will be difficult to cut off the transmission chain even if the prevention and control are strong, according to Zhong, who has been a public voice since the earliest days of the epidemic.

The rapid roll back of testing nationwide made it difficult to gauge the extent of the spread with official data now appearing meaningless.

Outside experts have warned that China may be underprepared to handle the expected surge of cases, after the surprise move to lift its measures in the wake of nationwide protests against the policy, growing case numbers and rising economic costs.

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.

Setting up more clinics for infectious diseases and increasing ICU wards and beds are some of the measures being undertaken by China, according to the National Health Commission.

Meanwhile, experts have warned a lack of experience with the virus – and years of state media coverage focusing on its dangers and impact overseas, before a recent shift in tone – could push those who are not in critical need to seek medical care, further overwhelming systems.

Relaxing its zero-COVID policy: The challenge for China from the early October to the early March 2020 COVID-19 generalized outbreaks

The Chinese market watchdog said on Friday there was a shortage of some “hot-selling” drugs and promised to crack down in order to prevent price gouging, while major online retailerJD.com last week said it was taking steps to make sure there was stable supplies after sales for certain medications surged

A state media interview with a Beijing doctor said that those who had tested positive for Covid but did not have symptoms would not need to take medication.

People who have symptoms don’t need medication at all. It’s enough to rest at home and maintain a good mood. ,” Li Tongzeng, chief infectious disease physician at Beijing You An Hospital, said in an interview linked to a hashtag viewed more than 370 million times since Friday.

China will no longer require travellers to show their itineraries as part of an uncertain exit from its strict “zero-COVID” policies.

In Beijing and other cities, protests over the restrictions grew into calls for leader Xiaoping to step down, in a level of public political expression not seen in decades.

Concerns about a possible new wave of infections in some areas prompted the relaxation.

At the same time, the government reversed course and allowed those with mild symptoms to recuperate at home, instead of sending them to field hospitals that have become notorious for overcrowding.

Reports on the Chinese internet, which is tightly controlled by the government, sought to reassure a nervous public, stating that restrictions would continue to be dropped and travel, indoor dining and other economic activity would soon be returning to pre-pandemic conditions.

China relaxes its zero-COVID policy and this poses a challenge. With mass-PCR testing no longer obligatory and people with mild symptoms allowed to recuperate at home rather than in one of the field hospitals that became notorious for overcrowding and poor hygiene, it has grown more difficult to gauge the true number of cases.

China has had a surge in the number of cases since Oct. 1, but only announced 8,500 new cases on Monday, bringing the country’s total to nearly 350,000 cases and five deaths. That compares to 1.1 million COVID-19 deaths in the United States.

Lars Hamer in Beijing: Predictions for the Xi-Government Resummation and Implications for Trade and Investment in China

Xi’s government promised to reduce the cost and disruption after the economy shrank by 2.6% from the previous quarter in the three months ending in June. The forecasters think the economy is going to shrink in the current quarter. Imports tumbled 10.9% from a year ago in November in a sign of weak demand.

Amid the unpredictable messaging from Beijing, experts warn there still is a chance the ruling party might reverse course and reimpose restrictions if a large-scale outbreak ensues.

Last week’s announcement allowed considerable room for local governments to assign their own regulations. Most restaurants in Beijing, for example, still require a negative test result obtained over the previous 48 hours and rules are even stricter for government offices.

The editor-in-chief of the China lifestyle magazine is, in fact, a man named Lars Hamer. He has been in China for a year and a half. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Follow him on Twitter @LarsHamer1. Read more opinion on CNN.

The first night of quarantine safety in China: When did I feel the pressure? How did I go? How my friend and I realized that Covid-19 had tested positive

Every resident dreads it, though it does not bother them. There was a banging at the door early Tuesday morning in my apartment in Guangzhou, China. Instantly, fear washed over me; health care workers in hazmat suits were ordering everyone to go downstairs because a neighbor had tested positive for Covid-19.

I had good reason to worry. Just one month ago, a teacher friend of mine and his colleagues were sent to centralized quarantine after one student at his school tested positive for Covid-19. I feared the same was about to happen to me.

To my surprise, nothing of the sort. I took a Covid-19 test and did not impress. Before my result even came out, I was free to leave my house and go about my day, totally unrestricted.

If this had occurred just weeks before, I would have, like my friend, been labeled a “close contact” and therefore would have been powerless to avoid the quarantine facility’s vice-like grip.

Guangzhou, a city of 15 million people, has been reborn as a bustling city after being a ghost town for some time.

The new measure would prevent the blocking of fire exits in the event of a lock down. Now, people who are infected can isolate themselves at home. Quarantine facilities are soon to be a thing of the past.

It had become clear that we were no longer tracked when friends and families who had not seen each other for months gathered in bars and restaurants.

I spent most days working until late at night because it was the only thing to do; non-essential businesses had closed, and millions of people were confined to their homes. I too began to feel the strain and started considering leaving the country.

It was such an unbelievable moment. The city of Guangzhou had over 8000 cases that day, just like the city of China’s second-largest city of Shanghai had in April.

State-of-the-art anti-COVID-19 control measures in the southern city lifted by a decision-making vote on Wednesday

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.

It was not known how many schools were participating, but students in nearby cities would have the option to either return home early or undergo testing every 48 hours. The busiest travel season in China is during the lunar new year.

Universities have been the scene of frequent lockdowns over the past three years, occasionally leading to clashes between the authorities and students confined to campus or even their dorm rooms.

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.

The government of the semi-autonomous southern city took a further step Tuesday, saying it would remove restrictions for arriving travelers that currently prevent them from dining in restaurants or going to bars for the first three days. The contacttracing app would be scrapped, but vaccine requirements will remain in place. The new measures take effect on Wednesday.

After the easing of control measures on the mainland it means a drop in testing, with many testing themselves at home and not going to 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.

China’s National Health Commission is Scaling Down COVID-19 Detection in the U.S. Embassy in Shenyang and Wuhan

The U.S. consulates in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang and the central city of Wuhan will offer only emergency services from Tuesday “in response to increased number of COVID-19 cases,” the State Department said.

“Mission China makes every effort to ensure full consular services are available to U.S. citizens living in the PRC, but further disruptions are possible,” an e-mailed message said, using the initials for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

Protests erupted after the deaths of ten people in a fire in Urumqi. Many questioned whether COVID-19 restrictions impeded rescue efforts. Authorities denied the claims spread online, but demonstrators gave voice to longstanding frustration in cities such as Shanghai that have endured severe lockdowns.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s National Health Commission scaled down its daily COVID-19 report starting Wednesday in response to a sharp decline in PCR testing since the government eased anti-virus measures after daily cases hit record highs.

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’s streets have grown eerily quiet, with lines forming outside the fever clinics and at pharmacy, where cold and flu medication are harder to find.

In Beijing, two centers that could give shots for the elderly were empty except for medical personnel. There was no evidence of a surge in patients despite the fears of a major outbreak.

At the China-Japan Friendship Hospital’s fever clinic in Beijing, a dozen people waited for nucleic acid test results. Nurses in full-body white protective gear checked in patients one by one.

A few kilometers (miles) south, at Chaoyang Hospital, about a dozen people waited in a line of blue tents, deflecting winds amid subzero temperatures. One person in the queue took out a bottle of disinfectant and sprayed it around her as she waited.

Across the street at Gaoji Baikang Pharmacy, around a dozen people waited in line for cough medication and Chinese herbal remedies. A sign at the front told waiting customers: “Avoid panic and hoarding, we are doing all we can to stock up to fulfill your medicinal needs.” A man coming out had bought two packages of Lianhua Qingwen, a Chinese herbal remedy, saying that each customer was restricted from buying any more than that.

Hospitals have also reportedly been struggling to remain staffed, while packages were piling up at distribution points because of a shortage of China’s ubiquitous motorized tricycle delivery drivers.

The impact of the outbreak in the city was visible in the upmarket shopping district Sanlitun on Tuesday. The usually bustling shops and restaurants there were without customers and, in some cases, only offered takeout.

A woman who worked at a Beijing neighborhood committee office said that 21 of her coworkers fell ill in the last few days.

“As our superiors are mostly infected, there’s not much work being given to us,” said the employee, Sylvia Sun. The usual events, lectures, performances, parent-child activities will definitely not be held.

The NHC said in a note that it was not possible to grasp the actual number of infections.

In a Twitter post, Beijing-based lawyer and former American Chamber of Commerce in China chairman James Zimmerman said about 90% of people in his office had Covid, up from around half a few days ago.

The city’s major hospitals recorded 19,000 patients with flu symptoms from December 5 to 11 – more than six times that of the previous week, a health official said Monday.

Sun said that so far only 50 severe cases and most of them had health conditions, when inspecting Beijing’s response to the epidemic on Tuesday.

“At present, the number of newly infected people in Beijing is increasing rapidly, but most of them are asymptomatic and mild cases,” said Sun, who also called for more fever clinics to be set up and made assurances that supply of medicines – which have been hit by a surge in purchases in recent days – was being increased.

Prominent Shanghai physician Zhang Wenhong warned hospitals about the risk of health workers getting HIV from the people they serve. He said that a shortage of medical staff and infections among patients could be caused by this situation.

Social media users questioned why the reporter, who showed her two-bed room and access to fever medicine in a video interview posted by her employer Beijing Radio and Television Station on Sunday, received such treatment while others were struggling.

Awesome! A young reporter gets a space in a temporary hospital and takes liquid Ibuprofen for children that is hard-to-find for parents in Beijing,” read one sarcastic comment, which got thousands of likes.

Panic buying medicines: The story of Xinhua Pharmaceutical, the leading manufacturer of ibuprofen, in Hong Kong

Some people theorize that canned peaches could be a way of preventing or treating Covid. The Chinese state media warned that the preserved fruit was not a Covid remedy or substitute for medicine.

Demand for fever and cold medicines, such as Tylenol and Advil, is surging nationally as people rush to stockpile drugs amid fears they may contract the virus.

The People’s Daily tried to set the record straight. It published a long Weibo post on Sunday urging the public not to stockpile the peaches, calling them “useless in alleviating symptoms of illness.”

Authorities also pleaded with the public not to stockpile medical supplies. On Monday, the Beijing city government warned residents that it was facing “great pressure” to meet demand for drug and medical services because of panic buying and an influx of patients at clinics.

Shares of Hong Kong-listed Xinhua Pharmaceutical, China’s largest manufacturer of ibuprofen, have gained 60% in the past five days. In the first two weeks of the month, the stock has jumped by 147%.

Xinhua Pharmaceutical stated that their production lines are operating at full capacity and that they were working overtime to produce needed medicines.

In some Hong Kong drugstores, fever drugs such as Panadol, the local brand name for Tylenol, have sold out. Most of the buyers were sending the medicines to their families and friends in the mainland, sales representatives told CNN.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/14/investing/china-covid-panic-buying-medicines-peaches-intl-hnk/index.html

Burial plots in China: a boom in demand since the first wave of government restrictions on interment services in the last few years, according to Citi Group

A huge boost has been given to the providers of funeral services. Fu Shou Yuan International, China’s largest interment service company, has seen its stock price jump more than 50% since last month.

There is “strong pent-up demand for burial plots” in 2023, analysts from Citi Group said in a recent research report, adding that they’ve noticed increasing investor interest in the sector.

They cited the existence of hundreds of thousands of cremated remains, which are being temporarily stored in government facilities awaiting burial. Lockdowns across much of the country have halted funeral services, they said.

Under the current conditions, a nationwide reopening could result in up to 684 deaths per million people, according to the projections by three professors at the University of Hong Kong.

The research paper is yet to undergo peer review but was released last week on the Medxiv preprint server.

Simultaneously lifting restrictions in all provinces would lead to hospitalization demands 1.5 to 2.5 times of surge hospital capacity, according to the study.

The first official deaths since the easing of restrictions were reported last week, but Chinese social media posts have pointed to a surge in demand for funerals in Beijing in recent weeks.

An employee at a funeral home on the outskirts of Beijing told CNN they were swamped by the long queues for cremation, and customers would need to wait until at least the next day to cremate their loved ones.

China’s first infection wave is predicted to run through the next year, warning on the arrival of a mass barricade and triggering of the Lunar New Year holiday

The major cities are facing a rise in infections. In the financial hub of Shanghai, schools have moved most classes online starting from Monday. In the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, authorities have told students that are already taking online classes and pre-schoolers not to prepare for a return to school.

In the megacity of Chongqing in the southwest, it was announced on Sunday that workers testing positive for Covid can go to work as normal, a major change from weeks ago when the city was in the middle of a mass barricade.

The Chinese experts warned that the worst is yet to come. Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese CDC, said the country is being hit by the first of three expected waves of infections this winter.

Speaking at a conference in Beijing on Saturday, Wu said the current wave would run until mid-January. The second wave is predicted to last from late January to early February next year and is triggered by people traveling ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.

The largest migration on Earth occurs every year as hundreds of millions of people leave their hometowns to build a life in China’s fast growing cities.