President Xi Jinping faces an important test for no Covid strategy this week as Shanghai tries to contain an outbreak of largely asymptomatic cases without resorting to the draconian lockdown measures typically imposed across the rest of China.
Chinese health authorities reported on Sunday that 5,702 new cases had been detected the previous day, about 80% of which were asymptomatic. Shanghai, with a population of 26 million, reports 2,631 asymptomatic cases, about 60% of China’s total asymptomatic population.
In an effort to control the outbreak, Shanghai officials have attempted to implement a lockdown targeting relatively small counties, while encouraging residents to self-diagnose with recently approved rapid antigen tests. this.
A member of Shanghai’s Covid task force said on Saturday that calls for a relatively short three- to seven-day citywide shutdown were misguided because of the “important role [we play] in the economic and social development of the country”.
“If the city is completely shut down, there will be a lot of international cargo floating in the East China Sea, which will greatly affect the national and global economy,” Wu Fan said at a meeting.
Mr. Xi’s zero Covid strategy has so far failed in only one city – Hong Kong, recently balk from plans to conduct mass tests of its 7.4 million residents and isolate all positive cases in newly built quarantine facilities.
This semi-autonomous territory has been overwhelmed by the current outbreak, which has accounted for the majority of the 1.1 million Covid cases and nearly 7,000 related deaths since the pandemic first emerged in Central Vietnam. China in January 2020.
According to a recent research During the Hong Kong spike, the death rate for Covid patients aged 80 and older who received two or three doses of the Chinese vaccine was 3%.
That represents a potentially large death toll if the rest of China, with some 27 million people aged 80 and over, also loses control of Covid, especially in poorer provinces and regions. Rural areas have a much more rudimentary health care system than Hong Kong.
While Mr. Xi recently said that China should Minimize interruptions for the economy to “pay the lowest price” while pursuing Covid zero, his administration has refused to change course fundamentally. As a result, the world’s most populous country has been effectively locked down from the rest of the world for more than two years.
All incoming international arrivals are subject to a three- or four-week quarantine, and the issuance of visas to non-diplomatic foreigners is virtually halted.
In terms of symptomatic cases, mainland China’s worst outbreak is still breaking out in the country’s northeastern Jilin province, population 24.1 million, where containment measures have been taken. much more difficult than Shanghai. Jilin accounted for nearly 90% of the 1,250 symptomatic cases reported by China on March 26.
