China abandons eradication of new crown infections, increased drug rush spreads to Hong Kong, Australia – BBC News 中文

The outside world generally believes that China has effectively ended its consistent zero-clearing policy and has turned to living with the virus. But after the policy changed, the number of infections in China ushered in explosive growth.

However, current official Chinese figures do not reflect the actual number of infections. According to data from the National Health Commission of China, 31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) in China and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps reported 2,157 new confirmed cases on December 15. Since it is difficult to accurately capture the actual number of asymptomatic infections, the Chinese government has announced that it will no longer publish data on asymptomatic infections as of December 14th.

Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program, rejected claims that the policy reversal led to a spike in cases, saying coronavirus infection numbers in China had exploded long before the China decides to abandon its stringent zero-clearance policy.

“The disease is spreading so intensively because the control measures themselves have not stopped it. China has strategically decided that this is no longer the best option,” Ryan said.

He also pointed out that the challenges China and other countries still face are whether people who need to be vaccinated are properly vaccinated, whether they received the correct vaccine and the correct dose, and when these people were last vaccinated.

The sudden sharp turnaround in politics and the surge in infections have undoubtedly sparked panic among the people. In many cities in mainland China, there were long queues at hospitals, anti-epidemic items such as cold and fever medicines, and even canned yellow peaches and electrolyte water were selling like hot cakes.

Panic buying has also spread to Hong Kong and Australia. Some pharmacies in Hong Kong have shortages of cold medicines such as “Biliton” and “Happy Cold Supplement”, and some pharmacies have begun to restrict the purchase of cold medicines.

In Box Hill, a Melbourne suburb with one of Australia’s largest Chinese communities, a pharmacist said several pharmacies were out of pridoxine, Reuters reported.

China Central Television reported that more than 160 industrial enterprises of Sinopharm Group are ramping up production around the clock, especially for some key varieties, which have tripled their daily production capacity.

32-year-old Zhang Xin (pseudonym) was infected on Wednesday, and almost her entire family was “infected”, including her 90-year-old mother, aunt and grandmother. You told BBC Chinese that the country should open up in an orderly way, not suddenly.

“Ordinary people are caught off guard in the face of the epidemic. In terms of drug purchases, there should be restrictions on purchases, so that people do not hoard too many drugs at home. People who are actually infected will go to the hospital for treatment medical due to lack of drugs, causing shortages of medical resources. Exacerbate the infection,” he said.

Zhang Xin said that her 90-year-old grandmother was seriously ill and had to queue for a long time to get to the hospital. After she got there, the doctor only prescribed some cold and cough medicine.

“For seniors with underlying illnesses, toll-free channels should be established to seek medical care,” he said.

In addition, there has also been a collective infection in Chinese medical care.

Chinese media Caixin reported that several major hospitals in Beijing recently called outpatients who had made an appointment, advising them to postpone their visits or switch to online consultations because there are positive cases in the hospitals. Doctors found that there were colleagues around them who continued to show symptoms and the workforce was reduced.

There are some voices on the Internet who miss China’s previous zero-zero policy, because they believe that the “zero-zero” policy is necessary to protect the elderly and children.

A Weibo netizen “Fans expelled every day” said that they are an absolute cleaning faction, because the new crown is very dangerous for the elderly, pregnant women and doctors. “Medical resources have always been scarce. If there is no doctor, it will be even more crowded. In addition, this will lead to repeated infections, that is, doctors will face repeated infections. Even pregnant women will have repeated fevers throughout pregnancy. It is too dangerous for the fetus.”

Some netizens also pointed out that the source of the prevention and control chaos is the issue of policy formulation. Weibo netizen “风雪雪海光” said, “Dynamic compensation has failed, there is no preparation, and has quickly turned into coexistence. Those who make policies do not show up. It is irresponsible to let people scold each other each other every day!”

As for the view that clarifying is better than letting go, Jin Dongyan, a professor at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Biomedical Sciences, stressed to BBC Chinese that “zeroing” is not tenable, and the same situation will happen if the “reset” policy continues. If one wants to go down an open path, it is natural to face the outbreak of the large-scale epidemic: “China is now open. Ideally, it should learn from the lessons of other countries and what can be done better.”

Jin Dongyan agrees with Mike Ryan that the number of cases rose rapidly before China relaxed its controls.

The Spring Festival trip to China will start next month. As for the large-scale movement of people, Jin Dongyan believes, “There is no major difference from now. It depends on whether they (the government) control it or not. In general, spring Travel to festivals will increase the spread of the virus, but the question is what is their philosophy now, whether they want the virus to spread or not.”