China will maintain its “zero COVID” strategy to curb contagion

Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered Thursday to continue the government’s “zero COVID” policy against the pandemic, at a time when the country is facing its worst epidemic rebound since the first wave in 2020.

“We must continue to put people and life first, always stick to scientific precision and stop the spread of the epidemic as quickly as possible.Xi declared, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

China, where the virus was initially detected at the end of 2019 – in Wuhan (center) – quickly stopped the spread of the epidemic by adopting very strict containment measures, which in some cases involved entire cities and carrying out massive tests.

This strategy “zero COVID”, which seeks to limit the appearance of new cases as much as possible, allowed China limit deaths to less than 5,000 since the start of the pandemic.

But for several days, the country has been dealing with its worst epidemic rebound since the first wave of infections, in 2020, with tens of millions of people confined throughout the country.

The Ministry of Health reported this Thursday that 2,432 new cases of COVID-19 were reported, distributed by practically all the provinces. The figures are very low compared to those reported by other countries, but for China they are very high.

strict measures

Given this increase in infections, the authorities decreed confinements in at least 17 cities, especially in the province of Jilin (northeast), where a large part of the cases were detected, and in the city of Shenzhen (south), where 17.5 live. millions of inhabitants.

In Shanghai, the largest city in Chinaonly 165 new cases were registered on Thursday, but the authorities confined several neighborhoods.

Thus, the famous Bund wharf, located on the banks of the Huangpu River in front of the iconic skyscrapers of the metropolis, was almost deserted.

In Hong Kong (south) hospitals are overflowing with patients and the local population is ransacking supermarkets in panic, fearing that a new confinement will be decreed.

The strict confinements weigh on the daily life and the economy of the country.

In fact, in recent weeks, Chinese experts have questioned the viability of the government’s strategy against the pandemic.

There have been cases of people being blocked from work or restaurants, waiting to be tested for COVID-19. In some cases, you have to wait up to 48 hours to get the result.

Earlier this month, Zeng Guang, a senior scientist, recommended that China start living with the virus and abandon “In the near future” your strategy “zero COVID”.

According to the expert, very few Chinese have been infected and their herd immunity comes almost entirely from domestically manufactured vaccines.