12.26.2022 16:22 (act. 12.26.2022 16:30)
First public statement since end of Covid-zero policy ©APA/AFP/POOL
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for effective measures to protect the population as his country moves away from the Covid-0 policy. “Currently, the prevention and control of Covid-19 in China is facing a new situation and new tasks,” Xi said in a directive, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Beijing had already stopped publishing daily krona data after nearly three years.
The “patriotic health campaign” should start with more purpose, Xi continued. A solid “wall of protection” in the prevention and control of the pandemic must be ensured and people’s “life, health and safety” must be “effectively protected”.
These are the first public statements by the head of state since the country backtracked from its strict corona measures in early December. Since then, the corona virus has been spreading rapidly in China, and the country is experiencing the biggest increase in infections in the world. According to estimates in studies, about a million people may die in the coming months.
On Sunday, China stopped publishing daily krona data. The national health commission announced that the number of new infections and deaths would no longer be announced daily. She didn’t give a reason for this.
China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will continue to “disseminate information about the outbreak for reference and research purposes,” it said. The Commission did not comment on the nature and frequency of these publications.
Netizens in China reacted cynically to the announcement. “It was the best and biggest bureau of fake statistics in the country,” wrote a user of the online service Weibo about the authority that had previously published official data from the crown. Another wrote: “Finally waking up and realizing they can’t fool people anymore.”
The People’s Republic surprisingly announced the end of its controversial Covid-zero policy this month after nationwide protests. Since then, the number of infections has skyrocketed. Medicines are sometimes scarce and hospitals are overcrowded.
Crematoriums and undertakers are also apparently having problems because of the rising number of deaths. Crematorium officials interviewed by the AFP news agency spoke of an unusually high number of corpses to be cremated.
The metropolis of Guangzhou, in the south of China, announced that the funeral ceremonies would be postponed until after 10 January. However, if relatives decide against a farewell ceremony, the bodies can be cremated as usual, according to the administration in the city of 19 million people.
According to the authorities, it is now impossible to estimate the number of corona cases due to the end of the mandatory test. Authorities have also narrowed the medical definition of corona deaths, so the number of corona deaths is lower than it really is, according to observers. Officially, only six corona deaths have been reported since the corona measures were lifted.
State media have largely refrained from reporting the downside of exiting the Covid-zero policy. However, some of them reported that the pressure on hospitals was great and that there was a shortage of fever medicines.
Over the weekend, however, the media quoted the head of the health authority in the city of Qingdao, in eastern China, who spoke of nearly half a million infected every day. In the coastal province of Zhejiang, new daily infections recently surpassed the one million mark, according to health officials. Officials in the capital Beijing also spoke of “a large number of infected people”.
The wave of infections comes ahead of the Chinese New Year celebrations next month, for which millions of migrant workers will return to their hometowns. Authorities are preparing for the virus to hit rural areas hard. They demanded to guarantee the supply of medicines and medical treatment on New Year’s Day and during the New Year’s holiday from 21 January.