The Chinese fight against the coronavirus: from zero-Covid to relaxation with dangerous consequences

Dramatic 180 degree turn
‘Everyone I Know Has Coronavirus’: China’s Losing Battle Against the Virus

Overcrowded clinics, out of medicines and crematoria with a waiting list: after the easing, a violent wave of coronavirus is pushing China to the edge. But instead of acting, the government prefers to talk about the numbers.

It’s a 180-degree turnaround with dramatic consequences. After nearly three years of lockdowns, forced quarantines and mass testing, China abandoned its strict anti-Covid policy in early December. The number of infections is now skyrocketing across the People’s Republic, with estimates that one in two people in the capital Beijing alone are already infected. Many restaurants, shops and banks have closed due to lack of staff, while hospitals and crematoria are very busy.

While the government prefers to speak only of a harmless “corona cold”, queues are forming in front of the crematoria in Beijing, which can no longer keep up with the cremation of the dead. “Since the opening of Covid, we have been overwhelmed with work,” says an employee of the situation.Wall Street Journal“. “Right now it’s 24 hours a day. We can’t keep up.”

Corona wave hits hospitals unprepared

The situation is also dramatic in many hospitals. In Chongqing, a city in the southwest of the country, the No. 5 People’s Hospital can hardly save itself from corona patients. The concourse has already been transformed into a makeshift Covid station, AFP news agency reports. Marked off by red and white tape, there are about ten beds with mostly elderly patients, in the adjoining room about 40 other patients are given intravenous drips. Some cough. They all have Covid-19, says a nurse.

The corona wave is capturing the clinics on cold feet. Instead of expanding hospitals and creating more intensive care beds, Xi Jinping’s government has preferred to build large-scale quarantine camps. The vaccination campaign was not pushed enough. In particular, the many elderly people considered at risk are not adequately protected: only 70 percent of the over 60s and 40 percent of the over 80s have received a recall. Meanwhile, the last vaccination for many of them was so long ago that the virus hit them hard. Also, vaccines adapted from abroad are not allowed in the People’s Republic for political reasons.

The situation on the drug front appears equally precarious. After relaxation, in addition to rapid tests, fever and cold medicines were immediately out of stock, no trace of replenishment. “We Chinese are too many,” explains a pharmacist of her empty shelves.

China’s 180-degree turn: from zero Covid to zero floor

Meanwhile, the government does not tire of saying that the turnaround, or rather the “optimization”, as it is euphemistically called, has arrived “at the right time”. The pandemic is now “controllable”, it says. The party newspaper “Global Times” speaks of “a better balance between epidemic prevention and social and economic development”.

The difference with the zero-Covid strategy, which has been pursued for almost three years, could not be more drastic. While mass testing, quarantine and contact tracing were part of daily life for most Chinese just a few weeks ago, the first big cities are now allowing those infected to go back to work. Provided they show no or mild symptoms.

Given the seemingly random strategy, many appear on social networks stunned and angry. “There has been no preparation for the last three years and suddenly the restrictions are lifted and you can go to work sick – our lives are as useless as ants,” read a much-liked comment on China’s equivalent of Twitter Weibo. .

Others even warn against returning to China. “I’ve never had Covid in recent years living abroad, but I caught it a few days after returning. (…) Everyone I know gets Covid and has a fever, so if you’re in the last time leave the country, don’t come back,” wrote a user on popular platform Xiaohongshu.

Falsified Covid death figures

“A return to full normality is foreseeable in the spring”, the “China Daily” wants to bode well. But before that, three more corona waves will sweep through the country, experts predict. The former will mainly hit cities by mid-January. The second will follow in mid-February, when hundreds of millions of people will traditionally travel to their home villages for Chinese New Year on January 22. With the return of travelers, the third wave of infections is expected in mid-March. Eventually, an estimated 80 to 90 percent of China’s 1.4 billion will be infected with the virus. The Chinese city of Qingdao is currently reporting 500,000 new corona infections, mind you, every day. According to reports from “Bloomberg” and the “Financial Times“In China, 248 million people or 18% of the population have been infected with Corona since the beginning of December.

Even if the disease with Omikron is no longer so serious, the country is threatened with several hundred thousand deaths from corona, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Some studies even assume nearly a million. The problem: Many of those who have died from Covid will not counted according to Chinese statistics, as the cause of death is noted as a pre-existing condition. Under the new definition, only those who died of pneumonia or respiratory failure after an infection are officially reported as corona deaths.

The criticisms come from the WHO: Without knowing the extent of the infections, it is difficult to take adequate measures, they say. China needs to learn how that information can be determined more quickly and accurately. The crucial question remains whether there will be enough vaccinations in the coming weeks to cushion the consequences of the spread of omicrons.

But after nearly three years of strict controls, the Beijing government appears to have given up on fighting the virus.

Sources: “New York Times“,”Washington Post“,”Wall Street Journal“,”BBC“,”Keeper“,”Reuters“, with DPA and AFP material