They warn that the coronavirus is “spreading rapidly” in China after control measures were eased

The infections from covid-19 “spread rapidly” in China, a well-known government epidemiologist warned on Sunday, following Beijing’s decision to abandon its “zero covid” policy.

Chinese health authorities announced a general easing on Wednesday of anticovid restrictions, after the historic demonstrations against the measures, and also as a strategy to relaunch the second world economy.

With the aim of large-scale and systematic PCR testing and the ability to isolate at home in mild, asymptomatic cases, andThe country is registering the maximum number of infections.

“Currently, the epidemic in China (…) is spreading rapidly, and under these circumstances, whatever the strength of prevention or controlit will be difficult to completely cut the drive chainof the virus, warned Zhong Nanshan, a leading health expert who has advised the government since the start of the pandemic, in an interview with state media published on Sunday.

in beijing

“The current omicron subvariants (…) are very contagious,” he added. “One person can pass it on to 22 people”, accurate.

The country is facing a wave of infections for which it is ill-prepared, with millions of elderly people still not fully vaccinated and hospitals without the capacity to take in so many patients.

On Sunday, in Beijing, they trained long lines in front of the pharmacies for storing fever medicines and antigen tests.

“I’m afraid to go out,” said Liu Cheng, a mother of two who lives in the center of the Chinese capital. “Many” of her friends have symptoms or have tested positive, she added.

The Chinese capital is experiencing its worst covid outbreak since the start of the pandemic, largely due to the sudden easing of strict anti-pandemic measures adopted by the authorities after protests in several cities over discontent with the “zero covid” policy.

The disappearance of artificial barriers created by Chinese government policies has caused the omicron variant, the most contagious and the cause of most outbreaks in the country since the beginning of this year.created an unimaginable situation just a few months ago.

unreal figures

The National Health Commission of the Asian giant reported 10,815 new positive cases across the countryof which 1,661 occurred in the capital.

Numbers that have been repeated to a greater or lesser extent in Beijing since the last week of November, even if the evidence suggests that, in recent days, since the easing of anti-covid policies, there are many other uncounted cases in the city.

“In the Wechat group – the most used messaging application in China – of the community where I live, every few hours a new neighbor sends a sheep emoticon, which these days represents being infected by the similarity in pronunciation of both the words” , confessed a Venezuelan living in the capital of 22 million people where everyone seems to know someone who has contracted covid.

The reduction in the frequency of PCR tests to the population and the use of home antigen tests to detect positive cases, infections in the latter case often not reported, have made the real situation in the capital distant from the official data provided by Beijing.

In addition, city residents face a shortage of antigen tests in pharmacies, sometimes requiring a wait of three to five days to receive kits and be tested.

reopening

Since the start of the current epidemic in the Chinese capital, most restaurants and bars have remained closed, but shops and shopping malls have remained open. they allowed a certain vibrancy in the streets.

Since last Wednesday, with the announcement of the new measures, many establishments have reopened their doors in the busy Sanlitun district after weeks without operations, but today the influx of people is far from normal for a Sunday.

A situationlearn to live with the viruswhich will positively influence the economy of the Asian giant according to some experts.

“The transition from zero covid will eventually allow consumer spending patterns to return to normal, but increased risk of infection will keep personal spending depressed for months after reopening,” Mark Williams, chief economist, said in a statement. for Asia by Capital Economics.

The Chinese economy could grow by 1.6% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the previous year e 4.9% in the second, according to an analysis by Capital Economics.

Restrictions within the nationwide “zero covid” policy have almost disappeared, but international borders remain mostly closed for travelers from abroad.

Travelers entering the country are subject to five days of quarantine at centralized government facilities and an additional three days of self-monitoring at home, although internal monitoring depends on increasingly lax neighborhood authorities, stoking hope among many residents who have not left the country. China for almost three years, waiting for these quarantines to disappear.

Source: AFP and EFE

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