Empty Streets In Beijing As Covid Cases Explode In China, Govt Races To Vaccinate Citizens: Report

Streets wore an empty look and shopping centres were deserted as residents stayed away from public places amid an explosion of Covid cases in China.

An elderly woman being assisted by a health worker as she waits outside a fever clinic in China

Source : AFP

A week after 'zero Covid' restrictions were eased in China, its capital Beijing has witnessed a sharp spike in cases, with streets wearing an empty look and shopping centres deserted as residents stayed away from public places, CNN reported. China also raced to vaccinate its most vulnerable people on Thursday in anticipation of an explosion in Covid cases.

The push for vaccination comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) raised concerns that China's 1.4 billion population was not adequately vaccinated and the United States offered help in dealing with a surge in infections, Reuters reported.

The development comes as China dismantled its tough 'zero-Covid' controls, dropping testing requirements and easing quarantine rules that had battered the world's second largest economy and led to massive protests against President Xi Jinping.

The spurt has resulted in long queues outside fever clinics, medicine stores and panic buying of drugs across the country.

"Authorities have let cases in Beijing and other cities spread to the point where resuming restrictions, testing and tracing would be largely ineffective in bringing outbreaks under control," analysts at Eurasia Group said in a note on Thursday, Reuters reported.

"Upward of 1 million people could die from COVID in the coming months," the analysts said.

On Wednesday, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) stopped tracking the new Covid cases and stated it would no longer include asymptomatic infections in its daily count. Earlier, these cases were reported albeit in a separate category from “confirmed,” or symptomatic ones.

“It is impossible to accurately grasp the actual number of asymptomatic infections,” the NHC said in a notice, citing reduced levels of official testing.

On Wednesday, 2,249 symptomatic Covid cases were reported nationally, of which 20 per cent were detected in the capital. Those figures are also thought to be impacted by reduced testing. CNN reported that the overall case count in Beijing could be many times higher than recorded.

Major hospitals in the city saw admission of over 19,000 patients with flu symptoms from December 5 to 11 – more than six times that of the previous week, the report quoted a health official as saying. The report also noted that the number of patients visiting fever clinics was 16 times greater on Sunday than a week before. 

The impact of the surge in cases was visible in the upmarket shopping district Sanlitun on Tuesday. The shops and restaurants wore a deserted look without customers and, in some cases, managing on skeleton crews or offering takeout only.

In a Twitter post, Beijing-based lawyer and former American Chamber of Commerce in China chairman James Zimmerman said about 90 per cent of people in his office had Covid, up from around half a few days ago.

 

China's stock markets and its currency fell on Thursday on concerns of the virus spread.