A coronavirus outbreak is ravaging a hospital in Shanghai for older adults, underscoring the difficulties officials have had in containing infections even as the city imposed a 10-day staggered lockdown. Two orderlies at the Shanghai Donghai Elderly Care Hospital said in interviews that the coronavirus was spreading widely among the mostly older patients in the facility, and that people had died on each of the past three days. The two, who declined to be named for fear of losing their jobs, said that on a recent night they had been…
Tag: Quarantines
Covid, Russia and Economy Put the ‘China Model’ to the Test
A year ago, while many countries were still reeling from Covid-19, China seemed to be one of few places prospering through the pandemic. It was also the only major economy that reported growth in 2020. Global investors were bullish on Chinese stocks even as Beijing’s regulatory crackdown on its private sector became more like a political campaign. That led some people in China to argue that its one-party authoritarian rule offered a compelling alternative to traditional liberal democracy. The United States was declining politically and economically, they said, and the…
Shanghai’s Lockdown Tests Covid-Zero Policy, and People’s Limits
Even before Shanghai imposed a lockdown to curb a rapidly spreading Covid outbreak, life for many in China’s wealthiest city had been upended by the virus — and the government’s response. Residents raced to hoard groceries in case they were ordered to stay home. Some protested at the gates of housing complexes that were locked with little notice. Others, sent to government isolation facilities, were forced to sleep on the floor because of a shortage of beds. For still others, the city’s Covid-19 restrictions have had life-threatening implications. Some residents…
As Omicron Surges and Economy Suffers, China Tweaks ‘Zero Covid’
When the coronavirus first swept across China in early 2020, the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, declared a “people’s war” against the epidemic, launching what would become a no-holds-barred strategy to eliminate infections. Now, in year three of the pandemic, and faced with the rise of a stealthy and rapidly spreading variant, Mr. Xi is trying to fine-tune the playbook, ordering officials to quash outbreaks — but also to limit the economic pain involved. As China grapples with the country’s largest outbreak since the pandemic began in Wuhan more than two…
Confusion and Chaos in Hong Kong as Leaders Fumble Virus Response
HONG KONG — From week to week as infections barreled through the city, residents in Hong Kong watched the government’s coronavirus policies change. First, officials said they didn’t have plans for social distancing in January, then promptly shut down bars and gyms and banned flights from eight countries. In February, the officials vowed to test every resident, then appeared to abandon those plans this month. And on Thursday, public beaches were closed just three days after Carrie Lam, the city’s leader, raised the possibility of relaxing Covid-19 restrictions. As Hong…
Wave of Omicron Infections Prompts Lockdowns in China
BEIJING — Several of China’s largest factory cities have ordered a lockdown, halting production of Toyota cars and Apple iPhones. Theaters, cinemas and many restaurants have closed in Shanghai. The northeastern province of Jilin on Monday banned its 24 million residents from leaving the province or traveling between cities. China is grappling with its largest surge of Covid-19 infections since the coronavirus first emerged more than two years ago in central China. Sustained outbreaks in two-thirds of the country’s provinces are proving the toughest test yet of China’s zero-tolerance coronavirus…
China’s Covid-Era Controls May Outlast the Coronavirus
The police had warned Xie Yang, a human rights lawyer, not to go to Shanghai to visit the mother of a dissident. He went to the airport anyway. His phone’s health code app — a digital pass indicating possible exposure to the coronavirus — was green, which meant he could travel. His home city, Changsha, had no Covid-19 cases, and he had not left in weeks. Then his app turned red, flagging him as high risk. Airport security tried to put him in quarantine, but he resisted. Mr. Xie accused…
In Wuhan, China, Anniversary of First Covid Lockdown Passes Quietly
Wuhan, the Chinese city where Covid-19 first emerged in late 2019, began the world’s first coronavirus lockdown two years ago Sunday, shutting down public transportation and restricting departures for what proved to be 76 days. Since that move — stunning at the time — lockdowns of varying sizes and strictness have been carried out around the world. Now China, which has largely kept the virus at bay since quashing that first wave in Wuhan and other cities, is battling the far more contagious Omicron variant, shortly before the Winter Olympics…
Zero-Covid Policy Shakes Hong Kong’s Economy and Its ‘Soul’
HONG KONG — Perry Lam felt confident that his business had weathered the worst of the pandemic. Several rounds of bar closures in Hong Kong had dimmed the city’s vibrant nightlife, threatening to destroy his brewery. But things seemed better late last year. After the government’s relentless effort to stamp out the virus, there were no local infections, bars began ordering kegs of his lager again and money was coming in. “You saw the silver lining,” said Mr. Lam, 34. That changed this month when Omicron started spreading, and officials…
Lockdown Made Their Second Date Last Weeks. Would Romance Bloom?
When Zhao Xiaoqing first met Zhao Fei on a blind date, the sparks didn’t really fly. When they met for a second time at his home in northwest China in December, it lasted longer than they both expected. Facing a new outbreak of coronavirus cases, the health authorities announced a lockdown so sudden and severe that she didn’t have time to scurry home. So for nearly four weeks, Zhao Xiaoqing has lived in the city of Xianyang, in Shaanxi Province, with the family of Zhao Fei, a man she had…