Tag: COVID-19 Pandemic

China Races to Vaccinate Elderly, But Many Are Reluctant

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING —  Chinese authorities are going door to door and paying people older than 60 to get vaccinated against COVID-19. But even as cases surge, 64-year-old Li Liansheng said his friends are alarmed by stories of fevers, blood clots and other side effects. “When people hear about such incidents, they may not be willing to take the vaccines,” said Li, who had been vaccinated before he caught COVID-19. A few days after his 10-day bout with the virus, Li is nursing a sore throat and cough. He said it was…

Beijing, Shanghai Residents Back to Work as China Limps Towards Living With COVID

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING/SHANGHAI —  Mask-wearing Beijing and Shanghai commuters crowded subway trains on Monday, with China’s two biggest cities edging closer to living with COVID-19, as millions have been infected with the largely unchecked virus across the country. After three years of ruthless anti-coronavirus curbs, President Xi Jinping scrapped the country’s zero-COVID policy of lockdowns and relentless testing this month in the face of protests and a widening outbreak. Health experts and residents worry that China’s statistics, which show no new COVID deaths reported for the six days through Sunday, do not…

China’s COVID-19 Surge Raises Odds of New Coronavirus Mutation 

Chin@Strategy

Could the COVID-19 surge in China unleash a new coronavirus mutant on the world? Scientists don’t know but worry that might happen. It could be similar to omicron variants circulating there now. It could be a combination of strains. Or something entirely different, they say. “China has a population that is very large and there’s limited immunity. And that seems to be the setting in which we may see an explosion of a new variant,” said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University. Every new…

China’s Zhejiang Has 1 Million Daily COVID Cases, Expected to Double

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING —  China’s Zhejiang, a big industrial province near Shanghai, is battling around a million new daily COVID-19 infections, a number expected to double in the days ahead, the provincial government said Sunday. Despite a record surge of cases nationwide, China reported no COVID deaths on the mainland for the five days through Saturday, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday. Citizens and experts have called for more accurate data as infections surged after Beijing made sweeping changes to a zero-COVID policy that had put hundreds of…

Hong Kong Drops More COVID-19 Restrictions but Caution Remains

Chin@Strategy

Hong Kong is forecast to grow economically next year after the city’s leader announced the removal of nearly all COVID-19 restrictions on international arrivals and said it would reopen its border with China. But experts say the coronavirus pandemic and geopolitics have hampered Hong Kong’s international status after nearly three years of global isolation. Last week, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee announced that people arriving in Hong Kong are free from COVID-19 restrictions. International passengers can now travel freely upon arrival. Previous requirements meant arrivals were not allowed to…

Shanghai Asks Residents to Stay in on Christmas as China COVID Surges

Chin@Strategy

shanghai —  Shanghai authorities urged residents to stay at home this weekend, seeking a toned-down Christmas in the nation’s most populous city as COVID-19 rages nationwide after tough curbs were lifted. A branch of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission on Saturday urged young people in particular to avoid crowded gatherings, due to the ease of spreading the coronavirus and low temperatures. Christmas is not traditionally celebrated in China, but it is common for young couples and some families to spend the holiday together. The omicron variant is surging weeks after…

Chinese City Seeing Half a Million COVID Cases A Day, Official Says

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING —  Half a million people in a single Chinese city are being infected with COVID-19 every day, a senior health official has said, in a rare and quickly censored acknowledgement that the country’s wave of infections is not being reflected in official statistics. China this month has rapidly dismantled key pillars of its zero-COVID strategy, doing away with snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and travel curbs in a jarring reversal of its hallmark containment strategy. Cities across the country have struggled to cope as surging infections have emptied pharmacy shelves,…

China’s Stretched Health System Braces for Peak in COVID Infections

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING/SHANGHAI —  China is expecting a peak in COVID-19 infections within a week, a health official said, with authorities predicting extra strain on the country’s health system even as they downplay the disease’s severity and continue to report no new deaths. In the face of a surging outbreak and widespread protests against its “zero-COVID” regime of lockdowns and testing, China began dismantling it this month, becoming the last major country to move toward living with the virus. Its containment measures had slowed the $17 trillion economy to its lowest growth…

Former Judge on China’s Top Court Suggests End to Prosecution of ‘Zero-COVID’ Violators

Chin@Strategy

HONG KONG —  A former judge of the Supreme People’s Court, the highest court in China, is calling for the suspension or revocation of cases against some 80 people found guilty of violating “zero-COVID” policy regulations since the advent of omicron, a less deadly variant that began spreading in December 2021. China implemented the zero-COVID policy in January 2020, the month after the virus was first detected in humans in Wuhan. Anyone convicted of obstructing the prevention and control of COVID-19 faced a prison sentence of three to seven years,…

Elderly Covid Patients Fill Hospital Wards in China’s Major Cities

Chin@Strategy

Chongqing, China —  Elderly patients lined the wards of hospitals in major cities in China on Thursday as the country battled a wave of COVID-19 cases. The virus is surging across the vast Asian nation in an outbreak authorities say is impossible to track after the end of mandatory mass testing. And with cases soaring, Washington called on Beijing to share its COVID outbreak data, saying China’s caseload affects the world. Attached to a breathing tube under a pile of blankets, an old man racked with COVID-19 lay groaning on…