Xi Warns Against ‘Herd Immunity,’ Vows to Stick With Covid Zero | Bloomberg News:
June 29, 2022 - "President Xi Jinping declared Covid Zero the most 'economic and effective' policy for China, during a symbolic visit to Wuhan in which he cast the strategy as proof of the superiority of the country’s political system. Xi said during a trip Tuesday to the central Chinese city where the virus first emerged in late 2019 that relaxing Covid controls would risk too many lives in the world’s most populous country. China would rather endure some temporary impact on economic development than let the virus hurt people’s safety and health, he said, in remarks reported Wednesday by state media....
"The president characterized Covid Zero as connected to the Communist Party’s 'nature and purposes.' 'We have the leadership of CCP, we have the communities as the foundation at grassroots level, we have the capability and strength to implement dynamic-clearance policy until reaching the final victory,' Xi said, using China’s preferred term for the approach.
"The comments come in the run up to a pivotal party congress later this year, in which Xi is expected to secure a precedent-breaking third term in power. By increasingly tying Covid Zero to his own prestige as a leader, Xi is making it riskier for critics of the policy to speak up and also raising the political stakes for himself. China’s Covid outbreaks and an ongoing property market slump have put the government’s economic growth target of around 5.5% out of reach....
"Xi’s remarks come after the country managed to quell its most serious outbreaks since the Wuhan crisis: both Shanghai and Beijing reported zero local cases on Monday, for the first time since Feb. 19, with the financial hub in particular emerging from a bruising two-month lockdown. The omicron outbreak has tested its playbook, but China appears to have emerged from that with a new protocol for maintaining Covid Zero indefinitely. While an easing of travel quarantine buoyed markets on Tuesday as a sign of reopening, officials in the same document codified a standardized approach to mass testing and lockdown that local officials should follow.
"China’s 1.4 billion people live in a new normal of constant testing and tracking. In the capital of Beijing, residents are required to show a green code on a mobile app that tracks their health status, and take a Covid test every three days to enter any public venue, including restaurants, shops, and mass transportation. Even kids over age three must be tested to play in the park."
Wuhan Sees Virus Return Days After Xi Reinforces Covid Zero | Bloomberg News:
June 30, 2022 - "Covid-19 has returned to the central Chinese city where it first emerged, with two cases reported in Wuhan and a swelling outbreak in a neighboring province.... Two port workers in Wuhan came down with asymptomatic Covid infections, authorities said Friday. They’re the first cases there in more than a month and come just days after President Xi Jinping’s symbolic visit to the city, where he reiterated China’s pursuit of a zero-tolerance pandemic policy that’s leaving the country isolated and subject to unpredictable restrictions....
"Anhui province to the east reported a significant increase in cases, to 107 on Friday from 14 a day ago, mostly in a small county of some 763,000 people that has already been locked down. The county will undergo a fourth round of mass testing to weed out infections, with positive cases and their close contacts sent to government quarantine, in line with China’s ongoing approach.... Shanghai reported zero Covid cases on Friday, with the leader of China’s top financial hub declaring victory over Covid earlier in the week and describing a grueling two-month lockdown where millions were confined to their homes and suffered food shortages as 'completely correct'....
"China is now deploying an updated Covid Zero playbook which halves quarantine periods for close contacts and incoming travelers to a week, but standardizes the more extensive deployment of mass testing and lockdowns. The aim is to use stepped-up surveillance via ubiquitous testing and early, aggressive restrictions to avoid the significant economic hit of lengthy lockdowns, like the one in Shanghai.... Xi and his government have used China’s Covid death rate, one of the lowest in the world, as proof of the Communist Party’s heft, with the president saying this week the population is too large for 'such strategies as "herd immunity" and "lying flat"' and that deploying them in China would have 'unimaginable' consequences.
"Most China watchers have long expected the country will look to exit Covid Zero once Xi secures a third term later this year, but his comments this week and the establishment of a brick-and-mortar network of testing stations has raised questions over whether it could be deployed much longer, with tweaks to limit economic fallout."
Read more: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/wuhan-sees-virus-return-days-after-xi-reinforces-covid-zero-1.1786485
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