Mask-wearing With millions of people infected with COVID-19 across the nation, passengers in China's two largest cities, Beijing and Shanghai, are swarming the subway trains as they get closer to living with the virus.
Since Beijing abruptly abolished its zero-COVID policy earlier this month, cities around China are grappling with an increase in viral infections that has left pharmacy shelves empty and overcrowded hospitals and crematoriums.
President Xi Jinping abandoned the nation's zero-COVID policy in the face of protests and an expanding outbreak after years of brutal anti-coronavirus restrictions.
However, following the initial shock of the policy reversal and a few weeks in which residents of Beijing and Shanghai stayed inside, either coping with the illness or attempting to avoid it, there are indications that life is moving toward returning to a more normal state.
On Monday, when locals traveled to work in Beijing and Shanghai, the subway trains were crowded, and several of the cities' main thoroughfares were congested with stationary automobiles.
Over the weekend, crowds gathered at the Bend area, a business district in Shanghai, for the annual Christmas market. On Sunday, large crowds flocked to Shanghai Disneyland and Beijing's Universal Studios for the winter holiday season, waiting in line for attractions while dressed in holiday garb.
According to a local newspaper, The 21st Century Business Herald, there were 132 percent more excursions this weekend to picturesque locations in Guangzhou than there were last weekend.
China is the final major nation to treat COVID as an endemic disease. The $17 trillion economy's growth rate has been lowered by its containment efforts to its worst level in over 50 years, affecting international commerce and supply lines.
In the short run, when the COVID wave extends to manufacturing sectors and workers become ill, the economy is predicted to suffer even more before improving next year, according to economists.
On Saturday, Tesla shut down operations at its Shanghai facility, a week before it had planned to halt the majority of manufacturing there. The business omitted a justification.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Sunday, that China reported no COVID deaths on the mainland for the six days up to Sunday despite a record rise in cases nationally and a spike in demand at crematories.
The decision by China to limit the kind of fatalities it counts as COVID-related to those involving pneumonia or respiratory failure has health professionals across the world scratching their heads.
The decision by China to limit the kind of fatalities it counts as COVID-related to those involving pneumonia or respiratory failure has health professionals across the world scratching their heads.
The decision by China to limit the kind of fatalities it counts as COVID-related to those involving pneumonia or respiratory failure has health professionals across the world scratching their heads.
According to the Beijing municipal administration, the city's 94 fever clinics have climbed to roughly 1,300, according to official media. Shanghai has 2,600 such clinics and has moved medical professionals from less overburdened divisions to assist.
There are still concerns about the capacity of China's less wealthy cities to handle an increase in serious illnesses, particularly given that hundreds of millions of rural migrant workers are anticipated to visit their families for the Lunar New Year.
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