While official data showed a drop in new cases, they no longer cover much of the population after the government scrapped mandatory testing for many people on Wednesday. This was part of dramatic changes aimed at phasing out "zero COVID" restrictions that have confined millions to their homes and sparked protests and calls for President Xi Jinping to step down. "Very few people come because there are many cases," said Gang Xueping, a waitress at a Beijing restaurant. “The country has just opened up. The first month or two will be downright serious. Nobody is used to this yet.
In other cities, social media users said colleagues or classmates were ill and some businesses had closed due to lack of staff. It was unclear from those accounts, many of which could not be independently confirmed, how above the official figure the total case numbers might be.
“I'm truly speechless. Half of the people in the company are sick, but they still won't let us stay at home," reads a post signed by Tunnel Mouth on popular platform Sina Weibo. The user did not provide his name and did not respond to questions sent through the account, which said the user was in Beijing.
The reports echo the experience of the United States, Europe and other countries that battled epidemics as they sought to restore business activity. But they are a jarring change for China, where "zero COVID," which aims to isolate every case, has disrupted daily life and depressed economic activity but kept infection rates low. Xi's government began easing controls on Nov. 11 after promising to cut costs and disruptions. Imports fell 10.9% year-on-year in November, a sign of weak demand. Auto sales fell 26.5% in October. “The easing of COVID controls will lead to more outbreaks,” Eurasia Group's Neil Thomas and Laura Gloudeman said in a report. "But Beijing is unlikely to return to the prolonged general lockdowns that collapsed the economy earlier this year."
The changes suggest the ruling party is softening its focus on preventing transmission of the virus, the basis of "zero COVID", but officials say the strategy is still in place. Restrictions likely need to stay in place until at least mid-2023, say economists and public health experts. They say millions of elderly people need to be vaccinated, which will take months, and hospitals need to be strengthened to deal with a surge in cases. Authorities announced a vaccination campaign last week.
On Friday, the government reported 16,797 new cases, including 13,160 without symptoms. That was about a fifth lower than the previous day and less than half of last week's daily peak above 40,000.
Other changes announced Wednesday allow people with mild cases of COVID-19 to isolate themselves at home instead of going to a quarantine center that some say was overcrowded and unsanitary. This faced a huge irritant for the audience.
The requirement for subway drivers, supermarket shoppers and others to show negative virus tests has also been removed, although they are still required for schools and hospitals. A signed post Where Dreams Begin Under the Starlight by a user in Dazhou, a city in the southwestern province of Sichuan, said all but five students in a class of 46 at a public school were infected.
"It's really surprising that the school insists students go to school," the user wrote. The user, contacted through the account, refused to provide a name or other details.
Requiring hundreds of millions of people to be tested once a day in some areas over the past two years has helped the government detect infections without symptoms. The end of this approach reduces the cost of monitoring employees and customers in offices, shops and other businesses. But it increases the risk that they could spread the virus. This week's changes follow protests that erupted on Nov. 25 in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities against the human cost of "zero COVID".
It's unclear whether any of the changes were a response to the protests, which subsided after a security crackdown. The ruling party's Politburo said Wednesday that stabilizing sluggish economic growth was its priority, though leaders said local officials should still protect the public.
“The new turn towards growth and the exit from zero COVID is clear from the top levels,” said Larry Hu and Yuxiao Zhang of Macquarie Group, an Australian bank, in a report. However, they warned, "uncertainties remain high," including "how disruptive zero-COVID output could be."
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