As Covid Infections Rise, China Rejects a Return to Lockdowns

In December, China abruptly abandoned its draconian “Zero Covid” policies, battered by a surge of infections and rising public anger against lockdowns. Half a year on, Covid cases again are on the rise, but this time the nation appears to be determined to press on with normal life as the government focuses on reigniting economic growth. Though other countries have long settled into such a pattern, it is a shift for China. Until late last year, its national leadership was still ready to lock down whole neighborhoods and districts, even…

China Approves an mRNA Covid Vaccine, Its First

China has for the first time approved a Covid-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology, greenlighting a homegrown shot months after the ruling Communist Party eliminated its strict pandemic restrictions in December. The shot, developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd., based in the northern Chinese city of Shijiazhuang, was approved for emergency use by China’s health regulator, according to a statement from the company on Wednesday. China has long refused to use the foreign-made mRNA shots that were crucial in easing the pandemic in many parts of the world. It chose…

How Bad Is China’s Covid Outbreak? It’s a Scientific Guessing Game.

As Covid barrels through China, scientists around the world are searching for clues about an outbreak with sprawling consequences — for the health of hundreds of millions of Chinese people, the global economy and the future of the pandemic. But in the absence of credible information from the Chinese government, it is a big scientific guessing game to determine the size and severity of the surge in the world’s most populous country. In Hong Kong, one team of researchers pored over passenger data from five Beijing subway lines to determine…

‘It Doesn’t Hurt at All’: In China’s New Covid Strategy, Vaccines Matter

The Chinese government is on a mission: to convince older citizens that its latest Covid-19 vaccines are easy to take and effective. In state-run media, a woman at a clinic in Tianjin said “there was no discomfort” with a new inhaled vaccine, while a woman in Shanghai quipped that getting her booster was “a bit like drinking milk tea.” A man in Wenzhou reassured the hesitant, “it doesn’t hurt at all, and it’s a little sweet.” Such state-sponsored messaging is critical as the Chinese government drops its onerous Covid restrictions…

Beijing Braces for Covid Surge After China Lifts Pandemic Curbs

At a hospital in the affluent Beijing district of Chaoyang, several dozen people lined up outdoors in near freezing weather on Friday at a clinic designated for fever patients. Some residents flocked to pharmacies, buying up stocks of at-home antigen Covid test kits. Many chose to stay home, leaving the capital’s usually busy streets quiet except for the puttering of motorbikes driven by food delivery workers. Beijing is bracing for what could be a surge in Covid cases, as extensive controls that had kept the virus at bay for nearly…

China’s ‘Zero Covid’ Policy Changes, Explained

The Chinese government on Wednesday unveiled a broad easing of its strict “zero Covid” policy, after an extraordinary outburst of discontent in mass street protests a week ago. The changes do not dismantle the policy, but they represent a loosening of measures that have dragged down the economy by disrupting daily life for hundreds of millions of people, forcing many small businesses to close and sending youth unemployment to a record high. Here are the highlights from the announcement. Testing The new rules move China away from the use of…

China Eases ‘Zero Covid’ Restrictions in Victory for Protesters

The Chinese government announced on Wednesday a broad easing of its exceptionally stringent Covid restrictions, an implicit concession to public discontent after mass street protests in more than a dozen cities a week ago challenged Beijing’s authority. The changes are not a complete dismantling of China’s “zero Covid” policy, but still represent a considerable loosening of measures that have dragged down the economy by disrupting daily life for hundreds of millions of people, forcing many small businesses to shutter and driving youth unemployment to nearly 20 percent, a record high.…

As Officials Ease Restrictions, China Faces New Pandemic Risks

As one country after another succumbed to outbreaks this year, China kept the coronavirus at bay, buying valuable time to prepare for the inevitable: a variant of the virus so shifty and contagious that China, too, would struggle to contain it. But rather than laying the groundwork for that scenario, China stepped up its commitment to “zero Covid,” deploying snap lockdowns and contact tracing. In the meantime, daily vaccinations fell to record lows. Critical-care beds remained in short supply, even as workers built testing booths and isolation facilities. Research on…

China Says It Will Do More to Vaccinate Older People Against Covid

Faced with growing social unrest over its tough pandemic measures, China said on Tuesday it would ramp up vaccination of its oldest citizens, a move that experts have argued is crucial if the world’s second largest economy is to ease Covid measures and reopen its economy. Authorities will bring vaccines to people in nursing homes, go door-to-door, use mobile vaccination stations and press those who are reluctant to give a reason, according to a statement from the National Health Commission. About 90 percent of China’s total population is fully vaccinated,…

Outbreaks Test China’s Efforts to Limit the Cost of ‘Zero Covid’

Barely a week after no longer requiring residents to show a negative Covid test to use mass transit, the authorities in the northern Chinese city of Shijiazhuang have locked down much of the city for five days as infections surge. In Shanghai, many neighborhoods have begun requiring frequent Covid tests again only days after telling residents that the tests were seldom needed. And across much of Beijing, officials have ordered schools and many businesses to close as daily cases rose over the past week to more than 1,400 and the…