COVID-19 soars in China after easing of restrictions

The number of COVID-19 patients is skyrocketing in Beijing, Chinese authorities reported on Monday, following a decision last week to relax health restrictions that had so far allowed the country to contain the epidemic.

Until the beginning of December, only a few residents of Beijing they knew someone close to them who had been infected but this seems to be changing, according to posts on social networks and data collected by AFP journalists.

In the capital, authorities said Monday that more than 22,000 patients had visited hospitals in Beijing the day before, 16 times more than the Sunday before.

“The tendency of the rapid spread of the epidemic in Beijing follow”Li Ang, a spokesman for the city’s health department, told reporters. “The number of consultations for fever and flu states has increased significantly, and the number of calls (…) to the emergency services has skyrocketed”, added.

China announced on Wednesday the end of its strict “COVID zero” health policy, ending large-scale lockdowns and ceasing to systematically place positive people in highly criticized quarantine centers.

In addition, it is no longer mandatory to present a negative result in a COVID test to travel to another province.

In this context, the Ministry of Health reported 8,626 new local cases of COVID on Monday, a figure probably much lower than the real one because PCR tests are no longer mandatory and people do not usually report the results of self-tests.

Since last week, it is difficult to find cold and fever medicines in pharmacies in Beijing and the same goes for COVID self-tests.

According to messages on social networks, there are also peaks of infection in smaller cities such as Baoding, in the province of Hebei (north), or Dazhou, in Sichuan (southwest). AFP could not immediately verify this information.

End of tracking application

Another sign of the change in health policy is the announcement on Monday of the deactivation of the main movement control application, which was used to check if people had transited through an area affected by the virus.

The application, called Travel Map, controlled the user’s movements based on telephone data and showed the cities they had visited in the last seven days. Depending on that information, he could access or not a hotel, a building or a shopping center.

If the location was not classified as “high risk” (ie with a high number of cases), the app would display a green arrow, meaning the user was allowed entry.

The application, dependent on the central government, will be deactivated as of Tuesday midnight, after more than two and a half years of service, according to an official statement.

Along with this application, of national scope that was already used before the epidemic to control interprovincial movements, there are local applications that continue to work and are used daily to enter restaurants, shops and buildings.

“Bye! This marks the end of an era.” said a user on the Weibo social network on Monday.

China it will now have to live with the coronavirus but it is not clear how prepared it is for the current wave of infections.

One of the most respected figures in China In the fight against COVID-19, respiratory disease specialist Zhong Nanshan said Sunday that the omicron variant was “spreading rapidly.”

Queues form at clinics to measure fever while

People lined up Monday in front of the modules implanted in Chinese hospitals to undergo checks for the COVID-19, a new sign of the rapid spread of symptoms after authorities began to roll back strict movement restrictions.

Three years after the start of the pandemic, China is aligning itself with a world that has largely opened up to living with COVID, making a major policy shift on Wednesday following unprecedented protests.

Pre-testing for many activities has been abolished, quarantine has been restricted and a mobile app used to track the travel history of a population of 1.4 billion people is being deactivated. The authorities continue to recommend the use of masks and vaccination, especially for the elderly.

However, with little exposure to a disease that had hitherto been largely kept in check, China It is ill-prepared, analysts say, for a wave of infections that could put pressure on its fragile health system and cripple businesses.

Lily Li, who works at a toy company in Guangzhou, the country’s southern industrial hub, said several employees, as well as staff from suppliers and distributors, had been infected and were isolating at home.

“Basically, everyone is rushing to buy rapid antigen test kits, but they have also given up a bit of hope that COVID can be contained”, he claimed. “We have accepted that we are going to have to get COVID at some point anyway.”

In Beijing, about 80 people huddled in the cold outside a fever control clinic in the luxurious Chaoyang district as ambulances sped by.

A Beijing government official said late Monday that visits to these clinics had risen to 22,000 a day, 16 times more than the previous week.

Reuters witnessed similar queues outside clinics in the central city of Wuhan, where COVID-19 first emerged three years ago.

However, official figures indicate that in recent weeks local cases have tended to decline from the peak of 40,052 at the end of November. Sunday’s tally of 8,626 was down from the previous day’s 10,597 new cases.

However, the figures reflect declining testing requirements, analysts say, while health experts have warned of an imminent increase.

Speaking in the state-run Shanghai Securities News on Monday, Zhang Wenhong, head of a local team of experts, said the current outbreak could reach its peak in a month, although the end of the pandemic could come within a period of three to six months.

In a WeChat post, Zhang’s team said that despite the rebound, the current omicron strain did not cause long-term damage and people should be optimistic.

“We are about to come out of the tunnel; air, sun, free trips, everything awaits us”the post said.

Stock markets and the yuan fall

Chinese stock markets fell broadly and the yuan was down from a nearly three-month high hit in the previous session as investors feared rising infections could disrupt consumption and manufacturing.

But for the same reason, demand was rising for shares of Chinese drugmakers and suppliers of masks, antigen tests and funeral services.

“Please protect yourselves”the address of a condominium in the capital’s Dongcheng district urged residents on Sunday, saying almost all of its staff were infected.

“Try as much as possible not to go out…”it said on the WeChat messaging app. “Be the first to take responsibility for your own health, let’s face this together.”

These messages seem to have struck a chord with some people, who are reluctant to visit crowded places or dine in restaurants.

For this reason, few analysts expect a rapid and widespread rebound in spending in the world’s second largest economy, as the jubilation with which the sharp relief was received was tempered by the uncertainty of consumers and companies.

Nevertheless, China is pushing for free travel across the country, even though trips abroad may take time to arrive.

A state mobile app that identifies travelers heading to COVID-affected areas will stop working Monday at midnight, according to an announcement posted on its official WeChat account.

The number of domestic flights available in China topped 7,400, almost double from a week ago, according to flight tracking app VariFlight.

With information from AFP and Reuters