- The biggest relaxation of the sidewalks since the pandemic began
- Cities ask citizens to be vigilant
- Analysts say China is not prepared for a large increase in cases
BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Dec 8 (Reuters) – As many Chinese embraced new freedoms on Thursday after the country dropped key parts of its tough zero-Covid regime, there was growing concern that a virus, which largely had been kept under control, he could soon run wild.
Three years into the pandemic, many in China had longed for Beijing to begin aligning its rigid virus prevention measures with the rest of the world, which has largely opened up in an effort to live with the disease.
Those frustrations turned into widespread protests last month, the biggest show of public discontent since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.
Without saying it was a response to those protests, some cities and regions began relaxing COVID controls, in moves that heralded a nationwide loosening of rules unveiled Wednesday by the National Health Commission.
The NHC said infected people with mild symptoms can now self-quarantine at home and removed the need for health status tests and checks on mobile apps for a range of activities including travel across the country.
Domestic ticket sales for tourist and leisure sites have soared, according to state media, while some people took to social media to reveal they had tested positive for the virus, something that had previously led a strong stigma in China.
Others expressed caution.
“I know that COVID is not so ‘horrible’ now, but it is still contagious and will hurt,” said a post on the Weibo platform. “The fear that fills our hearts cannot be easily dispelled.”
“Too many positive things!” said another Weibo user.
China reported 21,439 new local COVID-19 infections on Dec. 7, down slightly from the previous day and down from a peak of 40,052 cases on Nov. 27. Cases have been trending downward recently as authorities across the country eased testing requirements.
Several multibillion-dollar projects to build testing labs across the country have been scrapped as China has scaled back the need for testing, Shanghai’s government-backed news outlet The Paper reported.
Shares in China and Hong Kong lifted Asian stock markets on Thursday as these still-cautious steps toward reopening gave the world’s second-largest economy a chance to regain momentum. Macau casino operators (.CSICESG10) partly led the rally, rising 12.2%, bringing their quarterly gain to 46.5%.
China’s yuan, which has also regained some ground against the dollar in recent weeks, was little changed on Thursday.
POORLY PREPARED
China’s most populous city, Shanghai, which has been under one of the country’s longest and toughest lockdowns, dropped the need for COVID tests to enter restaurants or entertainment venues on Thursday.
[1/5] People wearing masks walk through a street, as outbreaks of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue in Shanghai, China, December 8, 2022. REUTERS/Aly Song
China’s “zero-COVID” policy has not been mentioned in recent announcements, raising suspicions that the term is dying out as the government gradually moves the country toward a state of coexistence with the virus.
Senior officials have also softened their tone on the dangers posed by the virus.
But as they adopted the new, more relaxed controls, some cities urged residents to remain vigilant.
“The general public should maintain a good awareness of personal protection and be the first person responsible for their own health,” Zhengzhou, the central city that hosts the world’s largest iPhone factory, said in a message to the residents
He urged residents to wear masks, maintain social distancing, seek medical attention for fever and other symptoms of COVID and, especially for the elderly, get vaccinated.
Some analysts and medical experts say China is unprepared for a large increase in infections, in part because of low vaccination rates among the vulnerable and its fragile health system.
Amid reports of panic buying of fever drugs, financial news channel Yicai, citing third-party data, said the average daily sales volume of home testing kits had increased more than 400 times from November .
“(China) may have to pay for its procrastination in adopting a ‘live with COVID’ approach,” Nomura analysts said in a note on Thursday.
Infection rates in China are only about 0.13 percent, “far from the level needed for herd immunity,” Nomura said.
Feng Zijian, a former official at China’s Center for Disease Control, told China Youth Daily that up to 60 percent of China’s population could be infected in the first large-scale wave before it stabilizes .
“Ultimately, 80% to 90% of people will be infected,” he said.
The country is likely to face a full-scale outbreak in the next one to two months, state-run China Newsweek reported Thursday, citing health experts.
China’s current count of 5,235 COVID-related deaths is a tiny fraction of its population of 1.4 billion and extremely low by global standards. Some experts have warned that the toll could exceed 1.5 million if the exit is too hasty.
But even with the dangers, for many there is an acceptance that life must go on.
“It’s impossible to kill this virus completely, maybe just live with it and wait for it to evolve into the flu,” said Yan, a 22-year-old unemployed Beijing resident who said he hoped a new opening of the China’s economy helped him. find a job.
Reporting by Ella Cao, Bernard Orr, Ryan Woo and Albee Zhang and writing in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Written by John Geddie; Edited by Simon Cameron-Moore and Toby Chopra
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.