In the Chinese city of Qingdao alone, half a million people have been infected with the coronavirus every day since early December.
Source AFP
© HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP
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LChina is currently facing an unprecedented surge of Covid-19 infections. In Qingdao city alone, half a million people are infected every day, according to a municipal health official, showing, in a quickly redacted article, that official statistics do not reflect the extent of this new wave of infections.
A new wave that comes three weeks after Beijing ended most of the strict health measures of the “zero Covid” policy without warning, removing onerous quarantines and travel restrictions with a significant impact on the Chinese economy, amid a growing population exasperation. China has been scrupulously applying this measure since 2020. Since then, cases of Covid in China have exploded and most of the inhabitants have been left to themselves, at a time when there is a lack of fever medicines and self-tests in the face of an exponential increase in demand.
Between 490,000 and 530,000 new cases per day in Qingdao
Cities across the country are scrambling to cope with rising infections that have emptied pharmacy shelves and filled hospital wards, while also contributing to an apparent overcrowding of crematoria. But the end of mandatory testing makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to estimate the number of cases, while the authorities have changed their methodology for counting infections.
From now on, only people who died directly from respiratory failure related to Covid-19 are counted in the statistics. A methodology that aims, according to experts, to reduce the number of deaths attributed to the pandemic. However, in the eastern city of Qingdao, a Communist Party-run media outlet quoted the municipal health official on Friday, Dec. 23, as saying the port city reported “between 490,000 and 530,000” new cases a day.
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The city of about 10 million people is “in a period of rapid transmission before approaching a peak,” said Bo Tao, quoted in the article, adding that the infection rate is expected to rise another 10% during the end. week.
A fast transmission
The article was shared by several other news outlets, but was edited Saturday morning to remove the numbers.
On Saturday, China’s health ministry reported 4,103 new infections nationwide the day before, with no new deaths. In Shandong, the province where Qingdao is located, the authorities have officially registered only 31 new local cases.
The Chinese government exercises tight control over the country’s media, with legions of online censors tasked with removing content deemed politically sensitive. Most government publications have downplayed the severity of the surge, instead describing the abandonment of the “zero Covid” policy as logical and controlled.
While some media outlets have reported drug shortages and hospitals under pressure, estimates of the actual number of cases remain scarce. The government of the eastern province of Jiangxi said in a social media post on Friday that 80% of its population – or about 36 million people – would be infected by March. More than 18,000 Covid patients have been admitted to major health facilities in the province in the past two weeks, including nearly 500 serious cases but no deaths, the statement said.
