The case of a woman with a pandemic-era zero-Covid infection emerges on a social media platform Weibo

It is difficult to judge the true scale of the outbreak by official numbers. China stopped reporting asymptomatic cases last week, conceding it was no longer possible to track the actual number of infections. These asymptomatic cases used to account for the bulk of the country’s official caseload. As cities roll back mass testing, the rest of the case count is meaningless as well.

Fighting back tears, she shouts abuse at the hazmat-suited workers below in a video that has recently gone viral on social media platform Weibo and which appears to encapsulate the Chinese public’s growing frustration with their government’s uncompromising zero-Covid policy.

The woman has been under quarantine for half a year since returning from university in the summer, she shouts at the workers. They stared back and seemed 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 beginning on Sunday is considered the most important event of the year in China, since it is anticipated to cement the hold of President Hu Jintao. as well as a new strain circulates just days before.

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.

No to the Covid test, no to democracy and yes to freedom: The story of China’s largest Covid-19 protest in a week after Congress

Nerves are high in China’s capital, where online photos posted Thursday appeared to show an exceptionally rare public protest against Xi. Yes to food if you say no to the Covid test. Yes, to freedom and not to be locked up. Yes, to dignity, not to lie. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. No to great leader, yes to vote. Despite the heightened security surrounding the Congress there were banners hanging over an overpass with the message “Don’t be a slave, be a citizen”.

The Weibo platform immediately turned off search results for the site of the protest. Before long, key words including “Beijing,” “Haidian,” “warrior,” “brave man,” and even “courage” were restricted from search.

After a protest, many accounts on Weibo and WeChat have been banned.

Still, many spoke out to express their support and awe. Some shared the Chinese pop hit “Lonely Warrior” in a veiled reference to the protester, who some called a “hero,” while others swore never to forget, posting under the hashtag: “I saw it.”

Even in the face of rising public discontent, the signs show that the zero- Covid approach will stay in place, with the state media articles this week serving to calm speculation that the country may change tack after Congress.

CNN found that hundreds of millions of people across China were affected at one point last month by partial or full lock downs.

China’s Health Commission on Thursday reported 1,476 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases nationwide, a significant number in a country where even one infection can trigger a city-wide lockdown.

Worried by the possibility of unpredictable and unexplained snap lockdowns, a few people in the city have reportedly been drinking more water than they need.

The announcement that the water authorities have taken action to make sure water is not polluted has made panic buying worse.

The number of reported cases has been dropping since late November due to new testing requirements, but there are indications that infections in some parts of the country are rising. Beijing, for example, is facing a rapid growth in infections, according to Chinese state media agency Xinhua.

Despite the country’s strict curbs on tourist spending, there has been an increase in domestic tourist cases.

More than 240,000 university students have been forced to stay indoors due to the latest outbreak in Inner Mongolia. The Communist Party boss of a university was fired after 39 students from his school tested positive for the disease.

There is a situation in far western Xinjiang where 22 million people have been barred from leaving and are required to stay. The official tally shows that the region recorded over 400 new cases on Thursday.

Beijing appears unwilling to walk away from its hardline stance. There were commentaries published in the People’s Daily that said China would not let its guard down.

The battle against Covid was winnable, it insisted. It was found that other countries reopened and loosened restrictions because they had failed to control the epidemic in a timely manner.

SHANGHAI — China on Friday announced steps to ease its “dynamic zero COVID” policy by shortening quarantine requirements, simplifying travel rules, and adjusting its monitoring and control regime.

The new measures were announced Friday following a meeting by the ruling Communist Party’s top decision-making body, during which leaders vowed to maintain Covid protocols while stressing the need to minimize economic and social disruptions.

New Beijing guidelines for Covid-19: The effects of new challenges for the zero tolerance approach to markets and vaccines, and consequences for the Swine Flu epidemic

The zero tolerance approach has come under fire from the public, as it faces increasing challenges from highly transmissible new variants.

The so-called “circuit breaker” mechanism that halted flights to China if it was found that a certain number of passengers tested positive for Covid will be scrapped.

Inbound international passengers will also see their pre-departure test requirement reduced from two to one, and their mandatory centralized quarantine upon arrival cut from seven days to five days, followed by another three days of home isolation.

Markets responded positively to the changes as Covid-19 restrictions have kept international investors jittery. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index shot up 7% just after the noon break local time, while mainland China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.5%.

Under the new guidelines, people who are identified as close contacts of Covid-19 cases will also have shortened quarantine at centralized government-operated facilities, down from seven days plus another three days at home, to five days and three days at home.

Some of the strict zero-COVID policy of the Chinese government has been loosened by new guidelines. People who have mild or no symptoms with the Swine Flu can be allowed to stay in their homes for the first time, because testing requirements and travel restrictions have been relaxed. The changes may lead to a rise in hospital infections.

The government reported over 10,000 new domestically transmitted cases on Thursday, the highest number in months, and the authorities were prepared for the situation to get worse.

The National Health Commission warned that the epidemic “is likely to further expand in scope and scale” due to mutations and weather factors in the winter and spring.

After the World Changes: China’s Zero-Covid Reflexation Reaction Against Swine Flu and Health Code Signs

After the government launched a redesign of its policy towards swine flu, workers in China removed some of the physical signs of the zero- Covid controls, while health code signs were removed from metro station walls.

Many people expressed relief and joy that the measures were removed, but some people were worried about how the new rules would be applied and how long they would last.

” The world changed overnight, and it’s amazing,” said a manager of a Beijing tech company. I’m feeling like we are getting back to normal. This is important to me because if I don’t get back to a normal life, I might lose my mind.”

How can it change so quickly? Ding asked. “It gives me the feeling that we are like fools. It’s all up to them. They said it’s good, so then it’s good … that’s what I feel right now. I have no choice, it is so amazing. All I can do is follow the arrangement.”

Changes were welcomed, but they sparked a feeling of disbelief in the city, which experienced a two-month-long, citywidelockdown earlier this year.

He said that he was very happy with the new changes but most of his friends were showing typical symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

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

What to do if you get infected by Covid-19 in China, or how to prepare for a shift in the public perception of the disease

Beijing health officials said the rules were changed due to the spread of the Omicron variant and the fact that China had more experience responding to the virus.

But the changes, which come on the heels of a wave of unprecendented protests across the country against harsh Covid restrictions, are a swift about-face for a government long bent on stamping out all infections. While health authorities made slight policy revisions and cautioned officials against overreach last month, the central government up until last week had shown no signs of preparing for an imminent shift in its national strategy.

The government and state media had long emphasized the dangers of the virus and its potential long-term effects – and used this to justify the maintenance of restrictive policies.

A small number of serious cases in a country of over 1.5 billion could have a big impact on the health system.

Meanwhile, experts have warned a lack of experience with the virus – and years of state media coverage focusing on its dangers and impact overseas, before a recent shift in tone – could push those who are not in critical need to seek medical care, further overwhelming systems.

On China’s heavily moderated social media platform Weibo, topics and hashtags related to what to do if infected by Omicron trended high on Thursday morning, while there were numerous reports of panic buying of fever medications.

The people weren’t told how to respond if they got infections, and what medicine was best for them. 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.”

Others expressed concerns about living with the virus. Aurora Hao, 27, an English teacher in Beijing said: “I want to keep myself safe, because I could be fine after my first infection, but if I am reinfected a second or third time, I’m not sure what harm that will bring to my body.”

People living in metropolitan areas and younger people may be more likely to support reopening the country if they believe the impact of Covid-19 is going to be bad.

Chinese Health Code Reopening: How Do Local Governments Implement the Zero-COVID-19 Guidelines After a Confidentiation?

Wang said that his mother was readying for a nuclear winter with the purchase of high-grade N95 masks and preparing for an initial wave of cases.

Many people are watching to see how the guidelines are implemented in their cities after some confusion with how guidelines are implemented by local authorities.

In Beijing, authorities on Wednesday said a health code showing a negative Covid-19 test would still be required for dining in at restaurants or entering some entertainment venues – in conflict with the 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.”

The latest national guidelines state that mass testing across entire cities is no longer required. 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. And the guidelines prioritize boosting the low rates of vaccination among older people.

The government has not stated the goal of its new policy, which could cause confusion. “These measures will very likely lead to a messy and hasty transition process where local governments ditch all the zero-COVID measures without investing seriously in preparing for the transition,” says Huang, who would have liked to have seen the reopening happen in phases.

But researchers say some aspects of the new rules are ambiguous and open to interpretation by local governments, including when and where to test people during an outbreak, what defines high-risk areas and how to manage them.

Many people in China live in densely populated high-rise buildings, where it will be difficult to limit transmission. George Liu is a public-health researcher at La Trobe University and he says allowing people to quark at home will contribute to the spread of disease. It could overwhelm the hospitals.

The timing of the reopening is not ideal, say researchers. Hospitals will be busy during the winter season as more people are hospitalized due to the flu. 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 doesn’t have a strong system for primary medical care system, such as a network of general practitioners, so people go to hospital for mild conditions, says Xi Chen, who hopes more details on how the government plans to triage care will emerge in the coming days.

Without additional support, the eased restrictions might not help businesses to recover from protracted lockdowns or remove the social stigma attached to COVID-19, says Joy Zhang, a sociologist at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. “I’m afraid that the health and socio-economic risk will be passed on to individuals.”

Urgent guidance is needed on how to curb transmission during a surge, such as through mask mandates, work-from-home policies and temporary school closures, says Cowling. There’s not much to say about how officials will keep track of the peak of an infection wave because of the reduction in testing.

The study shows that if most of the population got a fourth vaccine instead of the in-activatedviruses ones most people in the country have, infections would be slower and there would be fewer deaths. Pushing fourth vaccine doses, combined with giving antiviral drugs to people aged 60 and older and to other individuals at high-risk of developing severe disease, could reduce deaths by up to 35%.

In order for China to achieve the best vaccine coverage, it is critical that it takes place immediately before a major epidemic occurs, says James Trauer, an infectious-disease modeller. There is still a lot of uncertainty about the impact of measures to slow the epidemic, and that is one of the things he notes.

Vaccines in China are not the answer to the problem of Tanhua, a 34 year old girl who was bitten by a dog

“I have an advantage in that I don’t go to an office to work. She says that she doesn’t really get in contact with a lot of people at her job or agency. I think I protect myself well.

She doesn’t think the vaccine used in China is good enough, and she’s not afraid of the vaccine anymore because she’s young and doesn’t think China will re-open to the world.

Despite a push to boost vaccinations among the elderly, two centers set up in Beijing to administer shots were empty Tuesday except for medical personnel. There was no evidence that there was a surge in patient numbers.

Problems with quality in the production of pharmaceuticals have been a problem in China for years. Tanhua’s case is one that’s resonate.

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. But it didn’t go well.

The Vaccine Crisis in China: A Critical History of Science and Medicine in the Early 20th Century of Economic Development, and a Closer Look at the Problems of Disease Control in China

She was having a headaches and dizziness that night. Her memory declined sharply. She had convulsions. She didn’t know what to think; everything was dark for her. She couldn’t walk straight,” Hua told NPR by phone.

It wasn’t always like this, according to Mary Brazelton, an expert in the history of science and medicine in China at the University of Cambridge.​ The Chinese government launched several successful vaccination campaigns in the months after the Communist takeover, taking on a variety of diseases.

But lax oversight and corruption during recent decades of breakneck economic growth has led to a string of product quality scandals in China — from baby formula cut with industrial chemicals to contaminated blood thinner and tainted vaccines.​

Yanzhong Huang, a China health care expert at Seton Hall University, says the government has done a bad job of messaging around the virus and debunking myths — despite near total control of the media environment in the country.​

Many of those that are vaccine skeptics are liberals. They just don’t trust the Chinese vaccines and the government narrative on the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccines,” he says.

A good example of this is Jerry, a real estate executive in Shanghai, who is 33. He did not want his full name used because of the sensitivity of the topic.

“It’s not too serious, but it’s kind of a flu thing”, says Jerry. He hasn’t gotten the vaccine and he believes – despite science to the contrary – there’s no point.

I believe that the virus is changing quickly. So not a single vaccine can help,” he says, focusing on vaccines’ ability to prevent transmission rather than stave off serious illness and death.

Jerry estimates that the vaccination rate among his friends — educated, 30-somethings in China’s most cosmopolitan city — may be as low as 60%. Couples trying to get pregnant are more likely to be fearful of side-effects.

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.

But Huang, of Seton Hall, says the government may be better off bolstering the incentives for people to get the vaccine, and offering assurances of support in case something goes wrong.

Emerging epidemics in China: CNN’s Observer of the Day-of-the-Minimal Insight into the CDC’s Covid-19 epidemic

CNN provided a version of the story in their Meanwhile in China newsletter, which provided a three-week update on what you need to know about the country’s rise. You can sign up here.

Changes continued Monday as authorities announced a deactivation of the “mobile itinerary card” health tracking function planned for the following day.

The system, which is different from the health code scanning system still required in a reduced number of places in China, uses cell phone data to attempt to identify people who have been to a city with a designation of high-risk.

One of the studies uses data from recent outbreaks in Hong Kong and Shanghai to compare different scenarios in China. It finds that hospitals will be overwhelmed if infections rise as rapidly as expected because of the latest easing of restrictions. This will probably result in about one million deaths over the next few months, the study forecasts.

Media outlet China Youth Daily documented hours-long lines at a clinic in central Beijing on Friday, and cited unnamed experts calling for residents not to visit hospitals unless necessary.

A hospital official appealed to residents who have mild or no symptoms if they receive an emergency call to not call the emergency services line, following a spike in calls from Covid-positive residents.

The daily volume of emergency calls had surged from its usual 5,000 to more than 30,000 in recent days, Chen Zhi, chief physician of the Beijing Emergency Center said, according to official media.

Covid was “spreading rapidly” driven by highly transmissible Omicron variants in China, a top Covid-19 expert, Zhong Nanshan, said in an interview published by state media Saturday.

It’s difficult to completely cut off the transmission chain even if the prevention and control is strong, according to Zhong, who has been a key public voice.

The rapid rollback of testing nationwide and the shift by many people to use antigen tests at home has also made it difficult to gauge the extent of the spread, with official data now appearing meaningless.

The Chinese response to protests against the “zero-COVID” measures: Predicting the arrival of a surge of Covid-19 cases

Outside experts have warned that China may be underprepared to handle the expected surge of cases, after the surprise move to lift its measures in the wake of nationwide protests against the policy, growing case numbers and rising economic costs.

The government should focus on booster shots for the elderly and those most at risk, particularly when the China’s Lunar New Year is coming up next month, says the state media interview with Zhong.

Increasing ICU wards and beds, enhancing medical staff, and setting up more clinics for fevers are a few of the measures to be taken by China.

China’s market watchdog said on Friday that there was a “temporary shortage” of some “hot-selling” drugs and vowed to crackdown on price gouging, while major online retailer JD.com last week said it was taking steps to ensure stable supplies after sales for certain medications surged 18 times that week over the same period in October.

A hashtag trending on China’s heavily moderated social media platform Weibo over the weekend featured a state media interview with a Beijing doctor saying people who tested positive for Covid-19 but had no or mild symptoms did not need to take medication to recover.

“People with asymptomatic inflections do not need medication at all. It is enough to rest at home, maintain a good mood and physical condition There was an interview with the chief infectious disease physician of Beijing You An Hospital that was viewed more than 400 million times.

China will be dropping a travel tracing requirement as part of an uncertain exit from its strict “zero-COVID” policies that have elicited widespread discontent.

Last month in Beijing and several other cities, protests over the restrictions grew into calls for Xi and the Communist Party to step down — a level of public dissent not seen in decades. The party responded with a massive show of force and an unknown number of people were arrested at the protests or in the days following.

China’s National Health Commission stepped up its COVID-19 limit after the November 19th attack in Urumqi: Evidence of fewer asymptomatic cases

Concerns about a new wave of infections potentially overwhelming health care resources in some areas has been sparked by the relaxation.

At the same time, the government reversed course by allowing those with mild symptoms to recuperate at home rather than being sent to field hospitals that have become notorious for overcrowding and poor hygiene.

Reports on the Chinese internet, which is tightly controlled by the government, sought to reassure a nervous public, stating that restrictions would continue to be dropped and travel, indoor dining and other economic activity would soon be returning to pre-pandemic conditions.

Protests erupted Nov. 25 after 10 people died in a fire in the northwestern city of Urumqi. COVID-19 restrictions may have hampered rescue efforts. The demonstrators gave voice to longstanding frustration in cities such as Shanghai that have had 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.

Experts warn there is still a chance the ruling party might change course and impose restrictions if a large-scale outbreak ensues.

The announcement last week allowed the local governments to assign their own regulations. In Beijing, restaurants still need to have a negative test result for 48 hours and government offices are even more strict.

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.

A notice on the commission’s website said it stopped publishing daily figures on numbers of COVID-19 cases where no symptoms are detected since it was “impossible to accurately grasp the actual number of asymptomatic infected persons,” which have generally accounted for the vast majority of new infections. The only numbers they’re reporting are confirmed cases detected in public testing facilities.

Beijing’s streets have become eerily quiet, with lines forming outside fever clinics and pharmacies where it is difficult to get cold and flu medication.

At the China-Japan Friendship Hospital’s fever clinic in Beijing, a dozen people waited for nucleic acid test results. There are nurses in full-body white protective gear with patients.

At a hospital a few kilometers to the south, about a dozen people were waiting in a line of tents. Someone in the line took out a bottle of cleaner and sprayed her while she waited.

The people were waiting in line for the cough medication and herbal remedies that were available at the pharmacy. A sign at the front told waiting customers: “Avoid panic and hoarding, we are doing all we can to stock up to fulfill your medicinal needs.” A man coming out had bought two packages of Lianhua Qingwen, a Chinese herbal remedy, saying that each customer was restricted from buying any more than that.

COVID-19 deaths and cases in China — the first three years since the Decrement of the CPT-enforcing measures

Questions have been raised about whether the Communist Party has tried to reduce deaths and cases in China, because the government-supplied figures have not been independently verified.

Since Tuesday, the U.S. consulates in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang and the central city of Wuhan have been offering only emergency services “in response to increased number of COVID-19 cases,” the State Department said.

Despite loosened rules, restaurants were mostly empty. Many businesses are having difficulty finding enough staff who haven’t gotten infected. Sanlitun, one of Beijing’s most popular shopping districts, was deserted despite having its anti-COVID-19 fences taken down in recent days.

Hospitals were not able to keep up with demand due to the lack of motorized tricycle delivery drivers in China.

Some Chinese universities say they will allow students to finish the semester from home in hopes of reducing the potential for a bigger COVID-19 outbreak during the January Lunar New Year travel rush.

The government ended many of the strictest measures last week, after three years in which it enforced some of the world’s strictest virus restrictions.

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.

They were the first officially reported deaths since the dramatic easing of restrictions on December 7, although Chinese social media posts have pointed to a surge in demand at Beijing’s funeral homes and crematoriums in recent weeks.

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.

Detecting COVID-19 with Public Health in China: Why the Chinese public sector is going to be in trouble for a couple of months?

The major cities are experiencing a surge in infections. In the financial hub of Shanghai, schools have moved most classes online starting from Monday. Authorities in Guangzhou told students not to plan for a return to school since they are already taking online classes.

Public sector workers who test positive for Covid can go to work as usual in the southwest city of Chongqing, a remarkable turn around for a city that only a few weeks ago was in the throes of a mass lock down.

James Wood says China is going to be in for a bad couple of months.

Speaking at a conference in Beijing, he said the current wave would last 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.

Hundreds of millions of people each year migrate by train, bus and plane to see their families in their hometowns in China, which is the largest annual human migration on Earth.

A Yale University economist who studies China’s public-health system says it is never too late to flatten the curve.

The models do not take into account the delays in treating people with non-COVID-19 diseases, which can lead to excess deaths.

The two studies broadly agree on mortality estimates and the impact of interventions, says Cameron. “This similarity in large part reflects an agreement that herd immunity will only be achieved after a large, and difficult to contain, spread of transmission throughout the entire country.”

An AP investigation showed how the way COVID-19 statistics are reported has been clouded by a number of factors, from the way they are reported to the standards of how it is defined.

Several people were wheeled out of Beijing funeral homes last week, and two relatives told the AP that they died after testing positive for COVID-19. Last week, however, the country did not report any deaths due to COVID-19.

Experts have said that authorities should watch out for the dangers when counting deaths. Problems in death counts have raised questions in countries ranging from South Africa to Russia.