The New Reality of China After the Pandemic: A Case Study of a Ugly Patient with a Zero-Covid Policy

Beijing, which prior to the new rules was already experiencing a small-scale outbreak, is now on the front lines of a new reality for China: not since the early days of the pandemic in Wuhan have Chinese cities dealt with an outbreak without hefty control measures in place.

The video of her yelling abuse at the hazmat-suited workers below went viral on social media in China and appears to show the growing unhappiness of the Chinese public with the government’s zero- Covid policy.

The woman has been under the watch of the workers for half a year since returning from university. They stare back, seemingly unmoved.

While most Asian economies – even those with previously hardline zero-Covid stances – are abandoning pandemic-era restrictions, authorities in China remain zealous in theirs, repeatedly insisting this week in state-run media articles that the battle against the virus remains “winnable.”

The Communist Party congress that starts in Beijing on Sunday is the most important political event in decades and is being predicted to cement its position as the country’s Most Powerful Leader in decades.

Observers across the world will be watching the twice-a-decade meeting for signs of the party’s priorities when it comes to its zero-Covid stance, which has been blamed for exacerbating mounting problems in the economy, from stalled growth to a collapsing housing market.

Observation of a Zero-Covid State: An Update on Weibo, WeChat, Twitter, and the Beijing P.C. Epidemic

The online photos appeared to show a rare public protest against the president of China. “Say no to Covid test, yes to food. No to lockdown, yes to freedom. To dignity is no to lie. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. Yes to vote, no to a great leader. Don’t be a slave, be a citizen,” read one banner hung over an overpass despite the heightened security surrounding the Congress.

Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, immediately censored search results for “Sitong Bridge,” the site of the protest. Before long, key words including “Beijing,” “Haidian,” “warrior,” “brave man,” and even “courage” were restricted from search.

A large number of accounts on Weibo and WeChat have been banned for commenting on the protest, or alluding to it.

Many spoke out to show their support and awe. Some shared the Chinese pop hit “Lonely Warrior” in reference to the protester, others called him a “hero,” while others said they would never forget.

Yet even in the face of rising public discontent, all the signs suggest Xi and his party plan to stick with the zero-Covid approach, possibly into 2023, with the state media articles this week serving to dampen speculation the country may change tack post-Congress.

In Shanghai, where 25 million people have already endured two months of the world’s strictest lockdown, residents are now on edge at any signs of a repeat as authorities begin to tighten measures once again.

Beijing is grappling with its worst outbreak since the start of the P.C. epidemic and the two Covid deaths were announced on Monday.

The city has been spooked by the idea of snap lockdowns that may or may not occur, and as a result some people have been drinking bottled water.

The announcement that the water authorities in Hong Kong have taken action to ensure the quality of water at the mouth of the Yangtze River has made panic buying worse.

Officially, the number of reported cases has been dropping since late November because of the changes in testing requirements, but there are indications that infections in some regions are rising. Beijing is facing a rise in infections according to the Xinhua agency.

The country has seen a rise in tourist cases even though restrictions on travel have discouraged people from going to China during the Golden Week holiday.

More than 240,000 university students in Inner Mongolia have been locked down on campuses due to the latest outbreak, according to Zhang Xiaoying, a deputy director of the regional Department of Education. And the outbreak on campus has led to punitive action, with one university Communist Party boss being sacked after 39 students from his institution tested positive.

Then there is the situation in far western Xinjiang, where some 22 million people have been banned from leaving the region and are required to stay home. The official tally shows that the region recorded over 400 new cases on Thursday.

Yet amid it all, Beijing appears unwilling to move from its hardline stance. The People’s Daily, a newspaper of the Communist Party, published commentaries saying that China would not let its guard down.

The battle was winnable, it said. Other countries that had reopened and eased restrictions had done so because they had no choice, it said, as they had failed to “effectively control the epidemic in a timely manner.”

Relaxation of a strict zero-covid approach to the Communist Party, with implications for international flights and testing evidence of the COVID-19 case

The strict zero-covid policy has been relaxed in part by the reduced amount of time travelers entering China must spend inQuarantine, and the removal of a major restriction on international flights.

The new measures were announced Friday after the decision-making body of the Communist Party made a vow to maintain Covid protocols while stressing the need to minimize economic and social disruptions.

The heavy economic and social costs of the zero tolerance approach have drawn growing public opposition.

The easing of the measures will see authorities scrap the so-called “circuit breaker” mechanism, under which China-bound flights were suspended if an airline was found to carry a certain number of passengers who tested positive for Covid upon landing.

The requirement for a pre-departure test for inbound passengers will be reduced from one to one, and their compulsory centralized Quarantine will be cut from seven days to five days.

Covid-19 restrictions kept international investors jittery as markets responded positively to the changes. The Hang Seng Index shot up just after the noon break, while China’s benchmark Shanghai index went up 2.5%.

Under the new guidelines people who are identified as close contacts of a Covid 19 case will have shortened theirQuarantine at centralized Government-operated facilities from 7 days to 5 days and 3 days at home.

Furthermore, the guidelines do not lift testing and quarantine requirements for international travellers, which “doesn’t have a rationale if the objective is no longer zero COVID”, says Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong.

The government reports 10,535 new domestically transmitted cases on Thursday, which is the highest number in months.

The epidemic is likely to expand due to weather and genetic factors during the winter and spring, warns the National Health Commission.

The story of a Chinese family that was locked down by a snap Covid discontent: The eldest son and the mother-of-three

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

On the afternoon of November 1, hours after their home on the far outskirts of Beijing was locked down, Zhou last saw his father alive in a video chat.

At the time, they didn’t even realize the snap Covid restrictions had been imposed – there was no warning beforehand, and the apartment building where Zhou’s parents and his 10-year-old son lived did not have any cases, he said.

The family found out the hard way, when Zhou’s father was denied immediate emergency medical help after he suddenly began struggling to breathe during the video call. He said Zhou and his son made a number of calls for an ambulance, but security guards did not allow their relatives into the building.

On the same day Zhou’s father passed away, a 3-year-old boy was killed by gas in a locked-down compound in Lanzhou, who was not taken immediately to a hospital. A little girl died in a hotel from a 12hour delay in medical care.

He contacted several media outlets to report on his story, but didn’t hear from them. Amid growing desperation and anger, he turned to foreign media – despite knowing the risk of repercussions from the government. CNN is only using his surname to mitigate that risk.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/25/china/china-zero-covid-discontent-reopening-mic-intl-hnk/index.html

“I would rather die!” is the cry of a protest against the Covid lock down in Zhengzhou, China: the largest city blocked by mass testing

In the central city of Zhengzhou this week, workers at the world’s biggest iPhone assembly factory clashed with hazmat-suited security officers over a delay in bonus payment and chaotic Covid rules.

A resident of the city of Chongqing delivered a speech on Thursday, complaining about the Covid lock down on his compound. “Without freedom, I would rather die!” he shouted to a cheering crowd, who hailed him a “hero” and wrestled him from the grip of several police officers who had attempted to take him away.

These acts of defiance echoed an outpouring of discontent online, notably from Chinese football fans – many under some form of lockdown or restrictions – who have only been able to watch from home as tens of thousands of raucous fans pack stadiums at the World Cup in Qatar.

“None of the fans are seen wearing face masks, or told to submit proof of Covid test results. Are they not living on the same planet as us?” The Wechat article questioned whether China was right to insist that zero-Covid became popular before it was removed.

There are some indications that Chinese officials are hurt by the heavy social and economic tolls inflicted on them by the growing public discontent.

Many officials are reverting to the zero-tolerance approach for infections so as to prevent them from coming back.

The northern city of Shijiazhuang was among the first to cancel mass testing. It also allowed students to return to schools after a long period of online classes. But as cases rose over the weekend, authorities reimposed a lockdown on Monday, telling residents to stay home.

On Tuesday, financial hub Shanghai banned anyone arriving in the city from entering venues including shopping malls, restaurants, supermarkets and gyms for five days. In the city, the cultural and entertainment venues were shut down.

The most populous district in Guangzhou was locked down for the fifth time because of the protest.

The largest district of Beijing is mostly empty as authorities ordered residents to stay home and businesses to close. Schools in several districts moved to online classes.

There are a number of factors that have contributed to low vaccination rates among older adults. The effectiveness data was not used in the vaccine campaigns for essential workers and elderly people. The government has almost exclusively enforced “zero COVID” policies to keep the virus out and douse flareups rather than moving to ramp up vaccinations when outbreaks were limited.

Huang said he does not expect any fundamental changes to the zero-Covid policy in the short term. The local governments’ incentive structure has not been changed. They are still held accountable for the Covid situation in their jurisdiction,” he said.

The 20 measures listed in the guidelines are not meant to be a pivot to live with the virus.

Back on the outskirts of Beijing, Zhou said while the zero-Covid policy “is beneficial to the majority,” its implementation at a local level had been too draconian.

He doesn’t want things like this to happen again in China or anywhere in the world. My father passed away. My son’s grandpa died. I’m furious now.”

The First Three Months of the Beijing Swine Influenza Reaction: The Surprise and Disbelief that the City is Going Back to Normal

Some of the signs of the zero- Covid controls have been dismantled and health codes removed after the government decided to rethink its policy on fighting the swine flu.

While the changes were greeted with relief by many and sparked discussion online of freer travel within the country – and perhaps even international travel in the future – there was also a sense of uncertainty about what lay ahead.

“The world changed overnight, and that’s really amazing,” said Echo Ding, 30, a manager at a tech company in Beijing. “I feel like we are getting back to normal life. If I am not back to normal life, I might lose my mind.

How can it change so quickly? “Ding, what did you say?” “It gives me the feeling that we are like fools. It is up to them. I feel like they said it was good and then it was good. I have no choice but to watch it. All I can do is follow the arrangement.”

Despite the changes being good, David Wang said they had sparked a feeling of disbelief in the city, which was still recovering from a chaotic, more than two-month long, citywide lockdown earlier this year.

Most of my friends are showing typical signs of PTSD and they just cant believe it is happening, but I was happy about the new changes.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/china/china-zero-covid-relaxation-reaction-intl-hnk/index.html

Covid-19 in China: a moment of crisis? Comments on Beijing’s social media outburst after the news of the case of the Omicron variant

According to the health officials in Beijing the changes to the rules were based on scientific evidence and included the spread of the Omicron variant andChina’s level of experience in responding to the virus.

The rules that were relied on to control transmission of the virus were dismantled last week by top health officials. Some aspects of the measures, such as health code use in designated places, and home isolation of cases, remain.

The dangers of the virus, as well as its potential long-term effects, were emphasized by the government and state media in order to justify the maintenance of restrictive policies.

State media are trying to change everyones thinking by downplaying the lethality of the Omicron variant. A drive to immunize the elderly is under way.

That’s left many unprepared for what experts say could be an impending surge in cases in a country where the vast majority of people have not been exposed to the virus.

Public concerns about access to medicines and care have been a topic of discussion on social media. There, an account of a reporter being in a hospital for Covid-19 treatment triggered a controversy on social media and got more than 93 million views on China’s twitter-like platform Weibo.

“People were not told what kind of medicine they should have and what they should do if infected until there was widespread infection. In fact, we should have started doing this a long, long time ago,” said Sam Wang, 26, a lawyer in Beijing, who added that the policy release felt “sudden and arbitrary.”

Bob Li, a graduate student in Beijing who tested positive for the virus on Friday said he wasn’t afraid, but his mother was worried about him. “She finds the virus a very, very scary thing,” Li said.

People in more cosmopolitan cities may be more likely to support relaxing rules in China because of fears about the impact of Covid-19 within the country.

When and Where to Test People during a Covid-19 Influenza Event in China: A Study of the Implementation and Impact on the Primary Care System

Meanwhile, his mother was now buying high-grade N95 masks and preparing for a “nuclear winter” until a potential initial wave of cases passed, Wang said.

Many are watching to see how the guidelines are implemented in their cities, already there is a contradiction in how they are implemented.

Beijing authorities said a health code showing a negative Covid-19 test wouldn’t be required for dining in in restaurants or some entertainment venues, even though they conflict with national guidelines.

Hao, in Beijing, said on Wednesday evening that her health code had turned yellow – which would usually bar her from entering most public places, until she queued up for another test that returned a negative result. Now, with the new rules she knew she could largely go out freely, but instead she stayed at home to “wait and see.”

Mass testing is no longer required in the latest national guidelines. They also take a more measured approach to lockdowns: instead of shutting down cities, the government says movement restrictions should apply to high-risk communities, buildings and households. People no longer have to show evidence of a negative test to travel between regions or access public transport and other venues, except for high-risk settings such as nursing homes. The guidelines say to boost the low rates of vaccination among older people.

When and where to test people during an outbreak is one of the aspects of the new rules researchers say are open to interpretation by local governments.

Many people in China live in densely populated high-rise buildings, where it will be difficult to limit transmission. George is a researcher at La Trobe University in Australia and he said that allowing people to stay at home will contribute to viral spread. This could cause problems for hospitals.

The timing of the reopening is not ideal, say researchers. Winter is peak influenza season so hospitals will already be experiencing a rise in the number of patients. And many people will also be travelling across the country for next month’s Lunar New Year and spring festival, further increasing viral spread, says Xi Chen, an economist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, who studies China’s public-health system.

China does not have a strong primary care system, and people go to the hospital for less serious conditions, says Xi Chen, who hopes the government will come up with ways to divide care in the coming days.

The sociologist from the University of Kent said that businesses might find it difficult to recover from lengthy lock ups if the restrictions are not given more support. I fear the health and socio- Economic Risk will be passed on to individuals.

Cowling says urgent advice is needed on how to limit transmission during surge, such as mask mandates, work-from- home policies and temporary school closings. Although there was a reduction in testing, it is not certain how officials will determine if the cities have passed the peak of an infection wave.

The study suggests that if 85% of the population gets a fourth dose of a vaccine other than the inactivated-virus vaccines most people in the country have received, it could slow the rise in infections and reduce the number of severe infections and deaths. Pushing fourth vaccine doses, together with giving antivirals to high-risk individuals, could save up to 32% of deaths.

Why vaccine ignorance persists in China and what they are doing about it: The case of Tan Huo, a 34 year old girl who’s been bit by a dog

I don’t attend an office to work. She doesn’t work at a company or a government agency and doesn’t get in contact with a lot of people. I think I protect myself very well.

They blame the vaccine for that and have been on a crusade for justice ever since. She also now avoids all vaccines — including those for COVID-19, of which China has approved 12.

For many, it has roots in product quality issues that have plagued the manufacture of pharmaceuticals in China for years. The cases like Tan Huo’s are strong.

In 2014, Tan, then 34 years old, was bitten by a dog. She saw a doctor and was given a shot of what her mother, Hua Xiuzhen, says they were told was the best rabies vaccine on the market. It didn’t go as well as it could have.

Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/12/09/1140830315/why-vaccine-hesitancy-persists-in-china-and-what-theyre-doing-about-it

Vaccines for tetanus, tuberculosis, and other diseases in China: A case study with a real estate executive

“That very night she got a headache and dizziness. Her memory has declined sharply. She had convulsions. Everything was dark and she couldn’t see. She couldn’t walk straight,” Hua told NPR by phone.

Mary Brazelton, an expert in the History of Science and Medicine in China, said that it wasn’t always like this. In the months after the communist takeover of China, the government launched successful vaccine campaigns against tetanus, tuberculosis, and other diseases.

China has seen many product quality scandals in recent years, including baby formula and industrial chemicals, as a result of weak oversight and corruption.

The Chinese government has failed to communicate effectively with the public about the virus and debunking myths, according to a China health care expert.

“Many of those, the vaccine skeptics, are liberal-minded people. They just don’t trust the Chinese vaccines and the government narrative on the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccines,” he says.

Jerry is a real estate executive with a good example of being young. He did not want his full name used because of the sensitivity of the topic.

Jerry reckons COVID-19 is “kind of a flu thing” these days; nothing too serious. He doesn’t believe there is any point in getting a vaccine since he hasn’t gotten one.

“I just think the virus is changing so fast. He says that not a single vaccine can prevent transmission, so it isn’t a panacea.

Jerry thinks that the vaccine rate among his friends may be between 40% and 60%. He says couples are afraid of the side effects of having a baby.

Wood notes that it might already be too late for China to benefit from fourth doses because there is already widespread transmission now that many restrictions have been lifted. He is also “not convinced an extra dose will make a big difference to transmission”, because circulating Omicron variants of the virus show a strong ability to evade the body’s immune response.

The government can improve incentives for people to get a vaccine, and offer assurances in case something goes wrong, by saying so, saysHuang of Seton Hall.

The recent Hong Kong pandemic outbreak in China has caused a surge in emergency calls from Covid positive residents, with consequences for the health tracking app

On Monday, authorities announced a planned deactivation of the health tracking function on the mobile itinerary card.

At midnight on Monday, the smart phone app will cease to function, meaning residents’ travels will not be traced and recorded, potentially reducing the likelihood they will be forced into quarantine for visiting pandemic hot spots. The Chinese Communist Party does not allow independent parties to conduct verification and in the past they have been used to suppress travel and free speech. It’s part of a package of apps that includes the health code, which has yet to be disabled.

The study uses data from the recent outbreak in Hong Kong to compare other scenarios in China. It finds that hospitals will be overwhelmed if infections rise as rapidly as expected because of the latest easing of restrictions. Over the next few months, the study expects around one million deaths.

China Youth Daily reported on long lines at a clinic in central Beijing on Friday, and said that experts had urged residents not to go to hospitals unless necessary.

An official at a hospital appealed to residents with mild or no symptoms to avoid calling the emergency line, after a spike in emergency calls from Covid positive residents.

According to official media, the doctor of the Beijing Emergency Center said there had been a huge surge in emergency calls over the last few days.

China’s Covid-19 epidemic is coming to an end: how much does it take to cure it, and how to protect yourself in the era of the epidemic?

Experts have said the relatively low number of previously infected Covid-19 patients in China and the lower effectiveness of its widely-used inactivated-virus vaccines against Omicron infection – as compared with previous strains and mRNA vaccines – could enable the virus to spread rapidly.

“No matter how strong the prevention and control is, it will be difficult to completely cut off the transmission chain,” Zhong, who has been a key public voice since the earliest days of the pandemic in 2020, was quoted saying by Xinhua.

Due to the rapid roll out of testing nationwide and the shift by many people to use antigen tests at home, it is difficult to gauge the extent of the spread.

China may be unprepared to deal with the expected surge of cases after lifting its measures following nationwide protests against the policy.

Measures to be undertaken include increasing ICU wards and beds, enhancing medical staff for intensive care and setting up more clinics for fevers, China’s National Health Commission said in a statement.

China’s market watchdog said on Friday that there was a “temporary shortage of some hot-selling” drugs and vowed to crack down on price overcharging, while a major online retailer last week said it was taking steps to make sure stable supplies.

A Beijing doctor stated in a state media interview that people who test positive for Covid-19 but have no or mild symptoms don’t need to take medication to recover, even if they test positive for the drug.

People do not need to take medication if they have no symptoms. It is enough to rest at home, maintain a good mood and physical condition ,” Li Tongzeng, chief infectious disease physician at Beijing You An Hospital, said in an interview linked to a hashtag viewed more than 370 million times since Friday.

Xi Jinping’s Decline of Travel Tracing and the Phenomenology of China’s Uncertain Exit from Zero-Carbon Policy

China is dropping a travel tracing requirement as part of an uncertain exit from its strict “zero-carbon” policies.

Last month in Beijing and several other cities, protests over the restrictions grew into calls for leader Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist Party step down, in a level of public political expression not seen in decades.

The relaxation has caused some concern that a new wave of infections could overwhelm health care resources in some areas.

While reversing course, the government allowed people with mild symptoms to recuperate at home rather than going to field hospitals that have become notorious for overcrowding and poor hygiene.

Reports on the Chinese internet reassured the public that there would be no restrictions on travel, dining, and other economic activity and that they would return to pre-pandemic conditions soon.

The fire in Urumqi claimed the lives of 10 people. Many believed COVID-19 restrictions may have impeded rescue efforts. Authorities denied the claims spread online, but demonstrators gave voice to longstanding frustration in cities such as Shanghai that have endured severe lockdowns.

Xi’s government promised to reduce the cost and disruption after the economy shrank by 2.6% from the previous quarter in the three months ending in June. Forecasters say the economy probably is shrinking in the current quarter. Imports tumbled 10.9% from a year ago in November in a sign of weak demand.

There’s still a chance that the ruling party might reverse course if there is a large-scale outbreak.

The announcement gave local governments more flexibility to assign their own regulations. The majority of restaurants in Beijing require a negative test result in the previous 48 hours, as well as stricter rules for government offices.

Lars hamer in Guangzhou: a covid 19 student’s first experience in the workplace and at a quarantine facility

The Editor-in-Chief of the China lifestyle magazine is, in fact, a man named Lars hamer. He has lived in Guangzhou, China since 2018. The views expressed in this article are of his own. Follow him on the social media site. Read more opinion on CNN.

It all feels like a light at the end of what has been a very long tunnel. Scanning QR codes every time I entered a building, daily tests, and the constant thought that I could be sent to a quarantine facility for being a “secondary close contact” (being near someone who has interacted with a positive case), have all dominated the majority of my time in China.

I was not sure if I had reason to worry. A teacher friend and his colleagues were sent to centralized quark after one of his students tested positive for the Covid-19 drug. I feared the same was about to happen to me.

There was nothing of the sort. I took a Covid-19 test and underwhelmingly, that was it. Before my result even came out, I was free to leave my house and go about my day, totally unrestricted.

It would have been difficult for me to avoid the facility if this had happened just a few weeks ago.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/opinions/china-covid-restrictions-lifted-guangzhou-hamer/index.html

The Changing Times of Guangzhou — from a Covid-19 ghost town to a bustling metropolis after the Beijing lockdown

Guangzhou, a city of fifteen million people, has undergone a drastic transformation in less than 24 hours, from a Covid-19 ghost town to a bustling metropolis.

The measure bars blocking of fire exits in an event of a lockdown. Now, people who are infected can isolate themselves at home. Quarantine facilities are going to disappear in the near future.

Our movements were no longer tracked as friends and families who hadn’t seen each other for months were gathering in bars and restaurants.

I worked until late at night because the only thing to do were non-essential businesses which were closed and millions of people were confined to their homes. I too began to ponder leaving the country as I began to feel the strain.

It was hard to believe that it happened. Guangzhou had almost 8,000 cases that day, numbers similar to those that triggered a city-wide lockdown in Shanghai in April.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s National Health Commission scaled down its daily COVID-19 report starting Wednesday in response to a sharp decline in PCR testing since the government eased anti-virus measures after daily cases hit record highs.

The commission decided to stop publishing daily figures on the number of cases where no symptoms were detected since it was difficult to accurately grasp the actual number of people who have been exposed to COVID-19. The only numbers they’re reporting are confirmed cases detected in public testing facilities.

Beijing’s streets have grown eerily quiet, with lines forming outside fever clinics — the number of which has been increased from 94 to 303 — and at pharmacies, where cold and flu medications are harder to find.

A dozen people waited for test results at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing. The nurses are wearing full-body white protective gear.

In a line of blue tents, about a dozen people waited in the cold at the hospital a few kilometers south. A person in the queue sprayed sterilants around her as she waited.

Across the street at Gaoji Baikang Pharmacy, around a dozen people waited in line for cough medication and Chinese herbal remedies. The front of the store had a sign that said to avoid panic and to stock up on medicine. A man coming out bought two packages of a Chinese herbal remedy, saying that each customer would be restricted from buying more than that.

An analysis of the recent carbon dioxide outbreak in Beijing revealed that the U.S. government has not responded to the criticism of the covid epidemic

Facing growing skepticism that it’s downplaying Covid deaths, the Chinese government revealed that it had revised its method of counting deaths caused by the virus.

The State Department said that in response to the increased number of carbon dioxide cases, the U.S. consulates in China have been offering only emergency services.

Hospitals have also reportedly been struggling to remain staffed, while packages were piling up at distribution points because of a shortage of China’s ubiquitous motorized tricycle delivery drivers.

The Chinese universities want to reduce the possibility of a bigger outbreak during the January travel rush by allowing students to finish the semester from home.

The move follows the government’s dramatic announcement last week that it was ending many of the strictest measures, following three years during which it enforced some of the world’s tightest virus restrictions.

Sanlitun is an upscale shopping district that was impacted by the outbreak in the city. In some places, the normally bustling shops and restaurants were operating on skeleton crews or no customers at all.

Similar scenes are playing out across Beijing, as offices, shops and residential communities report being understaffed or shifting working arrangements as employees fall ill with the virus. Meanwhile, others stay home to avoid being infected.

According to a community worker who spoke with CNN, 21 employees of her Beijing neighborhood committee office had fallen ill in the past few days.

“As our superiors are mostly infected, there’s not much work being given to us,” said the employee, Sylvia Sun. “(The usual) events, lectures, performances, parent-child activities will definitely not be held.”

According to the NHC, it’s difficult to accurately grasp the actual number of infections.

A recent post by a Beijing-based lawyer, and the former American Chamber of Commerce in China chairman James Zimmerman, said about ninety percent of the people in his office had Covid, up from half a few days ago.

The city’s major hospitals recorded 19,000 patients with flu symptoms from December 5 to 11 – more than six times that of the previous week, a health official said Monday.

There were 50 severe and critical cases in hospitals so far that had underlying health conditions, according to Sun Chunlan, the top official in charge of managing Covid.

Sun said that new infections are increasing rapidly in Beijing but most of them are not very serious. Sun promised that there will be enough medicines, despite the recent surge in purchases.

Prominent Shanghai physician Zhang Wenhong warned that hospitals should do everything they could to ensure that health workers were not getting infected as quickly as the people in the communities they serve. Such a situation could result in a shortage of medical staff and infections among patients, he said, according to local media reports.

The reporter for Beijing Radio and Television Station gave a video interview on Sunday that showed her two-bed room with access to fever medicine, but social media users didn’t understand why she was treated that way.

“Awesome! A young reporter gets a space in a temporary hospital and takes liquid Ibuprofen for children that is hard-to-find for parents in Beijing,” read one sarcastic comment, which got thousands of likes.

Chinese public health and COVID: Implications for the next three winter floods, including Beijing’s funeral homes and crematoriums

The government in southwest China suggested tea made from monk fruit and orange peels as an alternative to traditional Chinese medicine. Dr. Zhong said weeks ago that he has not found any medication that is effective in keeping COVID infections at bay.

But experts have warned that the country is poorly prepared for such a drastic exit, having fallen short on bolstering the elderly vaccination rate, upping surge and intensive care capacity in hospitals, and stockpiling antiviral medications.

Under the current conditions, a nationwide reopening could result in up to 684 deaths per million people, according to the projections by three professors at the University of Hong Kong.

The surge of infections would “likely overload many local health systems across the country,” said the research paper, released last week on the Medrxiv preprint server and which has yet to undergo peer review.

Simultaneously lifting restrictions in all provinces would lead to hospitalization demands 1.5 to 2.5 times of surge hospital capacity, according to the study.

Chinese social media posts show that Beijing’s funeral homes and crematoriums have seen a surge in demand in the last few weeks, although they were the first officially reported deaths since the easing of restrictions.

An employee at a funeral home on the outskirts of Beijing told CNN they were swamped by the long queues for cremation, and customers would need to wait until at least the next day to cremate their loved ones.

Other major cities are also facing a surge in infections. In the financial hub of Shanghai, schools have moved most classes online starting from Monday. In Guangzhou, authorities said that students taking online classes shouldn’t be prepared for a return to school.

In the megacity of Chongqing in the southwest, authorities announced on Sunday that public sector workers testing positive for Covid can go to work “as normal” – a remarkable turnaround for a city that only weeks ago had been in the throes of a mass lockdown.

Chinese experts have warned that the worst is yet to come. Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese CDC, said the country is being hit by the first of three expected waves of infections this winter.

Speaking at a conference in Beijing on Saturday, Wu said the current wave would run until mid-January. The second wave is expected to last from late January to mid-February next year, triggered by the mass travel ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which falls on January 21.

Hundreds of millions of people who have moved toChina to build a life for themselves in the fast growing cities overload trains, buses and planes every year to see their family.

How China’s Public Health System Flattens the Curve: Implications for Epidemics, Preventive Measures, and Treatment

“It is never too late to flatten the curve,” says Xi Chen, an economist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, who studies China’s public-health system.

But these estimates include only deaths due directly to COVID-19, and do not take into account excess deaths because of delays in treating people with non-COVID-19 diseases, says Ewan Cameron, a modeller at the Telethon Kids Institute in Perth, Australia.

Both studies agree on the mortality estimates and impact of interventions. The similarity is based on the belief that herd immunity will only be achieved after a large spread of transmission through the entire country.

Zhong also said that 78% of patients infected with the Omnicron variant won’t be reinfected for quite a long time. Studies suggest protection against reinfection declines dramatically over time and most people will be reinfected every one to two years.

The Chinese internet was abuzz with the about-face. The posts juxtaposing several experts’ TV appearances have gotten more than 100,000 views.

Wu Fan, a member of Shanghai’s disease outbreak containment expert commission famous for insisting that Shanghai could not shut down is now receiving apologies online.

Whiplash aside, much of the online discussion has moved to how to deal with the aftermath of the policy change, including what preventative measures and treatments are available.

COVID’s Flying in the Dark: How the Chinese Diaspora Helped to Inform Us about China’s Social Media Policies

Untested remedies to fight COVID have again flourished in recent days. Iced salt water was recommended by an internal medicine doctor who is a member of the Academy of Engineering in China. The commenters were confused. Two years ago, did salt water rinse ever get discredited? Does an iced version make a difference?” one wrote in a blog post.

The chaos and uncertainty reminds Chen of when COVID was first spreading, as he sees it today. “It’s kind of flying in the dark.”

Additionally, non-state media outlets are vulnerable to government crackdowns. Ding Xiangyuan was a well-read online health information outlet that debunked health myths and criticized the government’s promotion of traditional Chinese medicine as well as the zero-COVID policy before it was suspended from popular social media platforms in August. The accounts of the company are silent on the Chinese social media site.

The Global Times, a newspaper controlled by the Communist Party, used a misleading report in the Daily Mail to suggest that Moderna manufactured the virus. The Global Times used the coverage to attack other theories regarding the origin of the virus and one that suggested it was leaked from a government research lab. Other smaller social media accounts made videos of the report, putting “British Media” in the headlines.

“The Chinese diaspora has played a very useful role here to share with people back in China about their personal COVID experience,” Chen says, “knowing that in most cases it will not be that serious.”

She points out that while researchers and journalists often pay attention to social media discourse, many rural, often elderly residents rely on television and family members in larger cities to stay informed. Many of them are vulnerable to the disease, live in places that do not have enough healthcare resources, and don’t know much about social media.

As NPR reported, public health authorities don’t base their messages for the public entirely on science – many considerations are also pragmatic and culturally-based.

Chen says that scientists have some soul searching to do in the next couple of years. “If we know that politics is going to play a role in public health and also in science, how do we conduct ourselves? What are we supposed to do?

Model predicts a wave of COVID-19 deaths as China reduces its strict health protections. A historic global agreement on biodiversity and how researchers can help to solve the energy crisis also have been added.

Climate Change and the 2015 Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biology (COP15): What scientists can do to make sure that the 2030 climate agreement is a success

NASA’s Perseverance rover will drop ten Martian rock samples that could be fetched and returned to Earth by another spacecraft. Evidence of life on the Red Planet could be found in the ancient river Delta, which may be the best location for evidence to exist. The cache is only a back-up — Perseverance will keep duplicate samples on board, so the retrieval mission can collect them directly from the rover in about ten years.

The 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biology, or COP15, came to a dramatic end early this morning, with a final agreement that will see 30% of Earth’s land and sea protected by 2030.

The feeling of optimism within the scientists is high. They welcome a historic agreement, which at times felt nigh-on impossible to achieve. The 2015 Paris climate agreement, which set a crucial goal to limit global warming to 1.5–2 C above pre-industrial levels, has created the first ever biodiversity targets on par with it.

China co-hosted the event in Canadian because it was originally planned to take place in Kunming in 2020. The presidency pushed ahead with the agreement despite a protest from theDRC about the responsibility of rich nations to fund poorer countries. Some people were a little worried after the statement was judged to not be a formal objection. Legally, it is done. I have no clue what to say. Lee White, the environment minister of Gabon said that it was over.

The conference for Nature reported that the dispute highlighted the difference between good intentions and hard work. “Will this undermine the integrity of the framework?” she asks. “It’s all very well pushing a document through, but what really matters is how it is implemented.”

How will global energy supplies change following the market turmoil created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? And how will the energy crisis affect climate action? These are some of the questions researchers must help to answer in 2023, say Andreas Goldthau and Simone Tagliapietra. They lay out five areas in which scientists can make a difference, including assessing routes to decarbonization in the face of the sky-high energy prices, informing heavy industries’ business models, and shedding light on how energy poverty and inflation threaten political stability.

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04541-3

The COVID-19 infection rates are too high: an environmental scientist’s advice to post-event surveying if you know you are protected

Conference organizers should start doing post-event COVID-19 surveys and disclose infection rates to attendees, argues environmental scientist James Kirchner. He ran an anonymous online survey after the conference. More than 80% responded, and 28% of them had COVID-19. He writes that he and the others had no idea the risks were high. If they had known they had a problem, they could have made changes to make sure attendees were protected. And they could have been aware of this issue simply by surveying recent attendees, as I did.” Event organizers say that they follow COVID-19 guidelines and that data-protection concerns hamper surveys.

Ant pupae aren’t the useless, immobile sacks scientists thought they were. Adult ants drink and feed on the milk produced by the juvenile ants. Without it, they remain stunted and die sooner, explains social-evolution and behaviour researcher Orli Snir. She thinks this discovery will help people to see ant colonies as interdependent networks rather than being led by only the adults.

Eileen Maher protects the tidelands with giant concrete spheres. In San Diego Bay, her team sank hundreds of reef balls. The spheres contain sand and oyster shells, which encourages living oysters to settle on them. It creates an artificial reef that protects the shoreline from being eroded during storms and combats climate change by sequestering carbon dioxide. (Nature | 3 min read)

When the Chinese Public Has Come Against COVID-19, It’s Always Going to Be Alive and Well: The Impact on the Rural Population in China

The AP investigation showed that the wayhealth authorities tally COVID-19 statistics applied a much tighter, less transparent and at times shifting standard as Shanghai changed how it defined positive cases.

A reporter for The Associated Press saw many people being wheeled out of funeral homes in Beijing last week, and two family members told the AP that they had died after being tested positive for COVID-19. Last week, however, the country did not report any deaths due to COVID-19.

But experts have repeatedly advised that authorities should err on the side of caution while counting deaths. Problems in death counts have raised questions in countries ranging from South Africa to Russia.

“I think the doctors at the township or county hospital are not capable of handling the increase in severe cases,” says Wang. In a dark winter, the rural villagers are left on their own.

As the Lunar New Year approaches, health officials are concerned the celebrations could turn into superspreader events, catching rural systems off guard and driving up infections in a country where natural immunity is nearly non-existent and vaccine hesitancy has remained stubbornly high among the older population.

“In China the messaging has to be really careful right now, since we will have a new year coming up and people are going to travel to the rural communities, so it’s going to be very important to inform the public that it’s coming,” says Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist and chief strategy officer at the University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).

The University of Hong Kong released a model last week that projected up to 1 million deaths if social distancing policies were not maintained in China.

“As the experts say, just set off some fireworks, have a good party and scare away the virus,” says Sun Caiyun, an ebullient restaurant owner in Beijing who says she is intent on heading back to her home village in the northern Shandong province – COVID or not. “Of course I am planning on returning home, because Beijing bans firecrackers!”

However, the strain China’s on countryside is already evident as medicine shortages hit rural pharmacies. Chinese rural residents have been asking for donations after seeing pictures of pharmacy shelves empty of medicine. Some of the medication has been diverted to cities, which were initially hardest-hit by the surge and where supplies first ran out.

The estimates follow China’s decision at the start of December to abruptly dismantle its strict zero-Covid policy which had been in place for almost three years.

Ray Yip is an epidemiologist who founded the Center for Disease Control’s office in China in 2003 and he says that the number of deaths they are willing to show is ridiculous.

Hospitals that NPR visited in Beijing this week were busy but orderly, with a handful elderly patients in the lobby lying in gurneys hooked up to intravenous bags because beds had run out.

The health care system in large cities has held up because many migrant workers have only rural insurance, which cannot be used in urban hospitals.

“You just have to suck it for a few days,” says Zhang Xiaohu, a delivery worker who contracted COVID in early December. He says he worked through his symptoms, because he does not receive paid sick leave and could not afford to go to a Beijing hospital. Being a delivery guy means you have to be able to risk your life.

One man waiting in line said that his grandpa started running a fever last week and then tested positive for Covid, even though they spent days looking for a hospital that could take him.

How the NHC came up with the estimates cited by Bloomberg and the Financial Times is unclear, as China is no longer officially tallying its total number of infections, after authorities shut down their nationwide network of PCR testing booths and said they would stop gathering data on asymptomatic cases.

On Friday a copy of the NHC meeting notes was circulating on Chinese social media, however the document has not been verified, and the NHC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Financial Times said it was Sun Yang – a deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention – who presented the figures to officials during the closed-door briefing, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Covid deaths and their connection with the new NHC data released by Wang Guiqiang: a top infectious disease doctor had no conversations with the public

The public data of NHC which reported just 62,592 Covid cases in the first twenty days of December was starkly different to the current figures.

According to the latest NHC guidelines, only deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure after contracting the virus are classified as Covid deaths, Wang Guiqiang, a top infectious disease doctor, told a news conference Tuesday.

According to both reports and the document CNN watched, the minutes of the NHC meeting on Wednesday didn’t mention discussions about how many people may have died in China.