Health & Diet

China signals ease in Covid policy after mass protests

Although there are many everyday cases, China has indicated a change in its Covid position as it moves to relax some viral prohibitions. On Thursday, lockdown restrictions were lifted in dozens of neighborhoods in Shanghai and Guangzhou, areas that had experienced an increase in instances. The vice-premier of the nation also declared that the nation was in a "new position." It happens as China experiences widespread demonstrations against its zero-Covid policy. Ten people were murdered in a high-rise building fire in western Xinjiang last week, which is what started the disturbance. Many Chinese believe the city's long-standing COVID restrictions led to the deaths, despite the authorities' denials. It sparked days of sizable protests in numerous cities, which have subsequently subsided amidst a strong police presence.

On Wednesday, restrictions in big cities like Guangzhou were quickly relaxed after the city experienced violent rallies that led to fights between protestors and police. According to a Reuters report, a neighborhood in the Chinese capital Beijing also permitted Covid cases with mild symptoms to isolate at home. This is a marked departure from earlier this year's protocols, which saw entire communities and buildings locked down, sometimes as a result of just one positive case. Some limitations were also loosened in other significant cities, like Shanghai and Chongqing. Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan, one of China's top pandemic officials, recently said that the virus' capacity to spread disease was waning. The nation is dealing with a new circumstance and brand-new responsibilities in epidemic prevention and control as the pathogenicity

According to a Reuters report, a neighborhood in the Chinese capital Beijing also permitted Covid cases with mild symptoms to isolate at home. This is a marked departure from earlier this year's protocols, which saw entire communities and buildings locked down, sometimes as a result of just one positive case. Some limitations were also loosened in other significant cities, like Shanghai and Chongqing. Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan, one of China's top pandemic officials, recently said that the virus' capacity to spread disease was waning. As the virulence of the Omicron virus lowers, more people get immunized, and expertise in containing the virus accumulates, she added, according to a Reuters story, "the country is facing a new situation and new tasks in epidemic prevention and management." 

It will "take a while for the city to recover. Yet it is awesome to see Guangzhou city again," said Lijin Hong, an associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University, following the lifting of lockdown restrictions in many areas of Guangzhou. China has recently recorded its highest number of daily Covid cases since the pandemic began - with more than 36,000 cases recorded on Wednesday. For a nation with 1.4 billion people, the numbers are still insignificant, and as of right now, just over 5,200 people have died as a result of the pandemic. That equates to three Covid deaths in every million in China, compared with 3,000 per million in the US and 2,400 per million in the UK, although direct comparisons between countries are difficult.

site_map