China Covid cases rise to a record high

China has recorded the largest number of daily Covid cases since the beginning of the pandemic, despite rigorous efforts to eradicate the virus.

Several major cities, including Beijing, the capital, and Guangzhou, a commercial powerhouse in the south, are witnessing outbreaks.

Wednesday saw 31,527 cases compared to a peak of 28,000 in April.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, only slightly more than 5,200 individuals have died in a country with a population of 1,4 billion.

This amounts to three Covid deaths per million in China, compared to 3,000 per million in the United States and 2,400 per million in the United Kingdom, however, it is impossible to make exact comparisons between nations.

While China’s zero-Covid policy has saved lives, it has also severely impacted the economy and the lives of regular citizens.

A few weeks ago, the country lifted some of these limitations slightly.

It reduced the quarantine period for close contacts from seven days in a state institution to five days in a state facility and three days at home, and it stopped tracking secondary connections, allowing many more people to avoid quarantining.

Officials have also attempted to avoid imposing blanket lockdowns similar to those imposed in Shanghai earlier this year.

Faced with a resurgence in the number of cases in Beijing, as well as the virus’s first fatalities in recent months, officials have already enacted restrictions in some districts, closing stores, schools, and restaurants.

Officials declared that beginning Friday, the central city of Zhengzhou will impose a lockdown on its six million citizens.

It followed violent demonstrations at a massive industrial complex owned by iPhone producer Foxconn. The company issued an apology for a “technical problem” in its payment processing systems.

Other accounts of misery and despair have been disseminated online, fueling public animosity.

Last week, allegations that a newborn in Zhengzhou passed away due to a delay in her medical attention caused by Covid restrictions sparked an outcry.

Among the most severe reactions to Covid this year are:

• In January, inhabitants of the 13 million-person city of Xi’an, a popular tourist destination, were forcibly evicted from their houses and bused to quarantine facilities, while troubling reports arose of people being denied access to vital medical care.
• In March, the lockdown in Shanghai was supposed to last less than a week, but the city’s 25 million citizens remained at home for two months.
• In September, people of Chengdu who were locked in their apartments were trapped by an earthquake. Before rescuing anyone, rescue professionals were obliged to pass a Covid test elsewhere.

Last night, it was suddenly announced that our housing complex would be shut down and all inhabitants would be confined to their houses.

This is no longer shocking in China. At any time, a single illness or association with an infection can result in exclusion.

Beijing is in the midst of a significant Covid outbreak, but even before this, entering a shopping mall or a building where an infected person had been required home quarantine.

The majority of businesses in the large Chaoyang area of the city are currently closed. All residents of thousands of high-rises have been ordered to remain indoors for the next few days.

Consider then that this trend is duplicated in cities across the nation.

The lockdowns have persisted for months in the provinces of Xinjiang and Tibet.

This country will enter its fourth year of this catastrophe at the start of 2023, and whether true or not, zero-Covid has a sense of interminability.

People are exhausted by the pandemic and the government’s economy-destructive response.

The fact that officials have not stated where the exit ramp is has added to the confusion.

Furthermore, scientists may observe that China’s immunization rates are far too low, particularly among vulnerable populations. In addition, insufficient resources have been allocated to the expansion of medical facilities to accommodate a significant inflow of patients following any opening.

Short-term, however, my compound has informed me that following multiple rounds of mass testing, we are finally free to depart.

For the majority of citizens, however, this will not make a significant impact because almost nothing outside is accessible, including their workplaces.

China is the only large economy still pursuing a Covid eradication strategy with mass testing and quarantine regulations, and 31 provinces have reported virus cases.

In part, this is because vaccination rates are lower than in other developed nations, and barely half of those over the age of 80 have received their basic immunizations.

Despite proof that its homemade vaccines are not as effective, China has refused to import vaccines.

President Xi Jinping thinks that stringent restrictions are necessary to safeguard China’s substantial senior population.

Zero-Covid has come to characterize his authority and the authoritarian bureaucracy at his disposal in a manner almost unparalleled by any other policy.

It projects a veneer of control and stability before March when China’s equivalent of a parliament will assemble to select Mr. Xi for the third term as president.

Recently, William Hurst, a professor of Chinese development at Cambridge University, told that lockdowns restrict the spread of Covid outbreaks. However, they also impose a tremendous amount of social control.