Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered on Thursday to continue the government's “zero-covid” policy on the pandemic at a time when he is facing the worst pandemic rise since the first wave of 2020.
According to the national broadcaster CCTV, Xi said: “We must keep ahead of people and lives, always adhere to scientific accuracy, and stop the spread of the epidemic as soon as possible.
At the end of 2019, when the virus was first detected in Wuhan (Central), China adopted very strict confinement measures to quickly stop the spread of the epidemic, including city-wide and mass testing in some cases.
With a “zero-covid” strategy to limit the emergence of new cases as much as possible, China has been able to limit the number of deaths to less than 5,000 since the pandemic began.
However, for a few days, the country has been coping with the worst epidemic rise since the first wave of infections in 2020, with tens of millions of people trapped across the country.
The Ministry of Health reported this Thursday that 2,432 new cases of COVID-19 spread in almost all states were reported, which are very low compared to those reported by other countries, but very high for China.
- Strict measures -
Faced with this increase in infections, authorities have declared lockdowns in at least 17 cities, mainly in Jilin Province (northeastern part) where most cases were found, and Shenzhen (South) with 17.5 million inhabitants.
In Shanghai, the largest city in China, 165 new cases were recorded on Thursday, but authorities were confined to several regions.
Therefore, the famous Bund Pier, located on the banks of the Huangpu River in front of the iconic skyscrapers of the metropolis, was almost abandoned.
In Hong Kong (South), hospitals are overwhelmed by patients, and local residents are robbing supermarkets in panic for fear of a new closure being declared.
Strict confinement affects the daily life and economy of the country.
In fact, in recent weeks, Chinese experts have questioned the viability of government strategies against the pandemic.
Sometimes people are blocked at work or in restaurants waiting for COVID-19 testing. In some cases, you may have to wait up to 48 hours for results to be available.
Earlier this month, senior scientist Zeng Guang recommended that China begin to live with the virus and “abandon the “zero covid” strategy in the near future.
According to experts, few Chinese people are infected, and herd immunity comes almost entirely from domestically manufactured vaccines.
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