A health worker performs a covid test on a woman in Beijing. /
China tightens restrictions after registering more than 27,000 cases in one day and approaching the worst contagion data of the entire pandemic
The Chinese health authorities reported more than 27,000 new cases of Covid-19 yesterday, a daily figure that is close to the record registered in the entire pandemic and that contrasts with the strict limitations imposed in large cities such as Beijing, where parks and shops have been closed. museums to avoid contagion.
The Ministry of Health of the Asian giant reported 25,902 asymptomatic cases and another 2,225 classified as “confirmed”, a term attributed to patients who do present symptoms. Of the latter, 2,145 derive from transmissions of the virus at the community level, according to the official press. The main outbreaks were located in the province of Canton and the city of Chongqing, with more than 16,000 and 6,300 new infections.
Despite the commitment of the Beijing regime to the questioned policy of restrictions called ‘zero covid’, China is close to the maximum in April, when the Ministry reported 28,973 positives in a single day, coinciding with an outbreak that had as its main epicenter the city of Shanghai, which was confined for weeks.
The authorities have also reported deaths from covid in recent days, thus breaking a six-month streak. According to the authorities, so far 5,231 people have died in the Asian giant from a pandemic that supposedly originated in the city of Wuhan, in the east of the country.
The new wave has led the Chinese government to expand screening efforts and adopt new restrictive measures, mainly in large cities, after the government announced a relaxation of certain anti-covid regulations on the 11th to “optimize” the economic and Social. Although no mass confinements like the one in Shanghai have been decreed, there are currently 48 towns subject to some type of isolation on a lesser scale, according to data from Nomura Holdings collected by the Bloomberg agency.
protests
Vice Prime Minister Sun Chunlan, considered the regime’s main authority in the fight against the pandemic, visited the city of Chongqing on Monday and urged “decisive” measures to contain infections and, at the same time, avoid as much as possible its impact on economic activity and on the daily lives of citizens, some of whom in recent weeks have come to stage protests against the ‘zero covid’ policy. One of the most recent, held this month in the southern city of Guangzhou, brought together hundreds of protesters.
In the case of Beijing, most of the schools have stopped giving face-to-face classes and all the people who arrive in the capital since yesterday must undergo three PCR tests for three consecutive days. During this time, they will be prohibited from leaving their home.