The announcement is even in state newspapers: “The main epidemiologists predicted that this wave of infection [de Covid] peak within a month”, says a text published this weekend by the Global Times, linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
The relaxation of rigid pandemic control measures, such as large-scale confinements and the systematic hospitalization of infected people, has forced Chinese authorities to put in place measures to contain the increase in the number of cases taken for granted in the coming weeks.
Vehicles linked to the regime claim that Beijing is preparing a “carefully organized plan” so that the gradual goodbye to restrictions does not lead to a scenario of uncontrolled disease. And they do not leave aside the criticism: “This way, you get an organized return to normal compared to the West”, continues the Global Times.
The moving average of coronavirus cases in the Asian giant was 20,300 last Sunday (11), a lower figure compared to the peak of 41,000 observed earlier this month. But long queues around health clinics to carry out Covid tests have already been observed, as well as the proliferation of symptoms of the disease.
Leaders are also keeping an eye on the upcoming Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year, which will be held in January. The biggest festival on the Chinese calendar, the event traditionally leads to mass migration across the country of 1.4 billion people.
In addition to expanding vaccination —about 90% of the population completed the first vaccination schedule, according to the platform Our World in Data—, parts of the country, such as the capital, encourage people with mild symptoms to isolate themselves at home, without going to hospitals. , to conserve supplies and medical care for those who need it most.
The country has expanded the range of eased restrictions. This Monday (12), for example, he said that he will deactivate the main application that, for three years, has been controlling population movements to check whether people have transited through areas with concentrations of Covid cases.
When it first launched, the app was hailed by critics as a tool for mass surveillance and social control. Liu Xingliang, a member of the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Technology, said that indeed a large amount of personal and confidential information was collected, but that all data will be deleted.
Xi Jinping’s regime has also reduced places considered to be at high risk of Covid outbreaks, leading to the reopening of blocked areas. The number of regions dropped to around 4,500 on Monday, according to official data. In the first week of the month, it reached 30 thousand.
Among the areas now no longer containing high-risk zones and therefore subject to lockdowns is a district in the city of Zhengzhou where the world’s largest iPhone factory is located. In November, thousands of people left the region fearing the confinements, reducing economic production, and acts against the blockade were recorded.
Under the new guidance, high-risk areas with no new infections for five consecutive days must be cleared of lockdowns, and regional authorities have been urged not to arbitrarily expand the scope of lockdowns or extend them.
In Shanghai, an important Chinese financial hub, for example, city authorities reported that they will start to consider all areas as Covid-free from this Tuesday (13).
The change in the course of the controversial Covid-zero policy, criticized even by international organizations such as the WHO (World Health Organization), comes in the wake of an unusual series of popular mobilizations carried out in the country’s main cities and universities.
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