China stops counting all Covid cases and claims diagnostic difficulties

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Authorities in China said on Wednesday (14) that the easing of restrictions to contain the coronavirus made tracking new cases virtually impossible.

Stage of rare protests precisely against the policy known as Covid zero, the Asian country has been relaxing the main control measures that were in force since the beginning of the pandemic, almost three years ago, such as the end of the mandatory detection tests and the permission for quarantine home.

In November, before the easing, China recorded record levels of new cases. Since then, the numbers have been falling, but the National Health Commission says that the data no longer reflect reality, which would be a consequence of the loosening of the rules.

“Many asymptomatic people no longer need to participate in nucleic acid testing, which makes it impossible to accurately determine the actual number of asymptomatic people infected,” says a statement from the agency.

Citing the same difficulty in confirming diagnoses, China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it will no longer release daily reports. There are also rumors that even the death count should undergo some change, starting to consider only cases in which Covid is identified as the main cause of death and excluding, for example, patients with comorbidities.

Sun Chunlan, deputy prime minister of China and the main articulator of Covid zero, was quoted by the state press as warning of the rise in the number of cases in Beijing. But the regime seems determined to press ahead with opening up. Sun itself promised at the beginning of the month a “more humane approach” to the health crisis and drew attention to the drop in the lethality rates of the disease – since December 3, the country has not recorded deaths from Covid.

China is, however, facing an increase in cases that has not been fully scaled and for which it is not prepared, with millions of elderly people still without a complete vaccination schedule and hospitals without the resources to deal with an unexpected flow of infected patients.

This Wednesday, the National Health Commission also announced the opening of 14,000 Covid symptom monitoring units in large hospitals in the country, in addition to another 33,000 similar structures in smaller hospitals.

With Covid zero still in force and the signs that the country is moving towards a path of coexistence with the virus, many people with symptoms choose to treat themselves at home, including resorting to self-medication. Beijing residents report that cold remedies are sold out at pharmacies, where long queues have become more frequent.

The demand for diagnostic tests has also driven a parallel market with astronomical prices. Some buyers try to find the products through “dealers” whose contacts circulate on platforms such as WeChat, a turbocharged Chinese version of WhatsApp.

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