BEIJING —
China’s top health body said Wednesday the true
scale of coronavirus infections in the country is now “impossible” to track,
with officials warning cases are rising rapidly in Beijing after the government
abruptly abandoned its zero-COVID policy.
اضافة اعلان
Beijing’s decision
to scrap mass testing and quarantines after nearly three years of attempting to
stamp out the virus has led to a corresponding drop in officially reported
infections, which hit an all-time high only last month.
But those numbers
no longer reflected reality because testing is no longer required for much of
the country, China’s
National Health Commission (NHC) acknowledged on
Wednesday.
“Many asymptomatic
people are no longer participating in nucleic acid testing, so it is impossible
to accurately grasp the actual number of asymptomatic infected people,” the NHC
said in a statement Wednesday.
That came after
Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said new infections in the capital were “rapidly
growing”.
Chinese leaders are
determined to press ahead even though the country is facing a surge in cases
that experts fear it is ill-equipped to manage. Millions of vulnerable elderly
are still not fully vaccinated and underfunded hospitals lack the resources to
deal with an influx of infected patients.
Authorities said on
Wednesday they would begin allowing some vulnerable groups, including those 60
and older, to receive a second booster shot six months after their first.
A line of about 50
people stretched out the door of a fever clinic in Beijing on Wednesday, with
multiple residents telling AFP they were infected with COVID.
“Basically, if we
are lining up here, we are all infected. We would not come here if we weren’t,”
one person waiting in line said.
“I’m here with a
senior member of my family, he’s had a fever for nearly 10 days in a row now,
so we are coming to do a checkup on him.”
Beijing struggles
Restaurants, shops, and parks are now allowed to reopen but residents are
not finding the path to living with the virus straightforward.
Many with symptoms
have opted to self-medicate at home, while others are staying in to protect
themselves from getting infected.
Businesses are also
struggling as COVID-19 rips through the population and hits their staffing.
As a result, the
capital’s streets are largely empty.
“Basically I follow
the requirements of the Beijing government, that the elderly should stay home
and go out as little as possible,” said one resident in his 80s who declined to
give his name.
He said he wasn’t
too worried because he thought
Omicron was mild but told AFP he thought “there
shouldn’t be complete relaxation and freedom”.
“If we are dead,
how can we be free, right?” he said.
Residents have
complained of sold-out cold medicines and long lines at pharmacies, while
Chinese search giant Baidu said searches for fever-reducing Ibuprofen had risen
430 percent over the past week.
Soaring demand for
rapid antigen tests and medications has created a black market with
astronomical prices, while buyers resort to sourcing the goods from “dealers”
whose contacts are being passed around WeChat groups.
Authorities are
cracking down, with market regulators hitting one business in Beijing with a
300,000 yuan ($43,000) fine for selling overpriced test kits, the local Beijing
News reported Tuesday.
In a sea change for
a country where infection with the virus was once taboo and recovered patients
faced discrimination, people are now taking to social media to show off their
test results and give detailed descriptions of their experiences while sick.
“When my body temperature
went past 37.2 degrees, I began to add some sugar and salt to my lemon water,”
Beijing-based Xiaohongshu social site user “Nina” wrote in an account intended
as advice for those not yet infected.
Wang, another
Beijing resident in his 50s, told AFP: “I think everyone has got used to it.
They have moved on.”
“I don’t think people are that fragile.”
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
