- Beijing dropped many anti-virus curbs last week
- Millions will travel across the country for the New Year celebrations
- China stockpiles ventilators, medicines, tests for rural areas
- Waves of infection cloud near-term growth prospects
BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Dec 16 (Portal) – China on Friday unveiled urgent plans to protect rural communities from COVID-19, as millions of city dwellers planned vacations for the first time in years after the government lifted its strict regime of lockdowns and travel had curbs.
China’s move last week to align with a world that has largely opened up to living with the virus follows historic protests against President Xi Jinping’s signature “zero-COVID” policy aimed at stamping out COVID.
But the excitement sparked by this dramatic reversal has quickly given way to concerns that China is unprepared for the coming wave of infections and the blow it could deal to the world’s second-largest economy.
China reported 2,157 new symptomatic COVID-19 infections as of Dec. 15, compared to 2,000 the previous day.
But the official figures don’t paint the whole picture as testing has declined, and are at odds with signs of wider spread in cities where long lines outside fever clinics and empty pharmacy shelves have become a common sight.
Ahead of the local Lunar New Year holiday starting Jan. 22, there are particular concerns about China’s hinterland.
Rural areas are likely to be inundated with travelers returning to their hometowns and villages, which have had little exposure to the virus in the three years since the pandemic broke out.
China’s National Health Commission said Friday it will step up vaccination and build up stocks of ventilators, essential medicines and testing kits in rural areas. It also advised travelers to reduce contact with older relatives.
Mainland China’s international borders remain largely closed, but recent decisions to halt testing before domestic travel and disable apps that tracked people’s travel history have allowed people to move around the country.
One of China’s most populous provinces, Henan, canceled all public holidays for health workers until the end of March to ensure a “smooth transition” as COVID restrictions ease, state media reported late Thursday.
Several cities across the country, home to 1.4 billion people, also opened new vaccination centers to encourage the public to get booster shots, state-run newspaper Global Times reported.
Hong Kong said on Friday its adult residents could get a fifth shot as infections there have been rising in recent months.
“Go all out” was the message from China’s state wealth regulator in a statement late Thursday, urging state drugmakers to secure supplies of COVID-related drugs to meet the “rapid surge” in demand.
“Everyone will understand”
Thanks to previously uncompromising government controls, China has gotten off lightly during the pandemic compared to many other countries for the past three years, but now many Chinese have come to terms with catching the virus at some point.
“Everyone will get it, I think,” a 29-year-old Beijing resident, who asked to be identified by her surname Du, told Portal on the streets of Beijing.
Analysts fear China will pay a price for quickly sweeping the virus through a population that lacks “herd immunity” and has low vaccination rates among the elderly.
That has hurt prospects for near-term growth, even if opening up should eventually revive China’s struggling economy.
JPMorgan on Friday revised downwards its expectations for China’s growth in 2022 to 2.8%, well below China’s official target of 5.5% and one of its worst performances in nearly half a century.
China is preparing for “a period of transitional pain,” bank analysts said, adding they expect infections to spike after the Lunar New Year before the economy begins to recover in mid-2023.
President Xi, his ruling Politburo and senior government officials are holding their annual Central Economic Work Conference this week, sources told Portal.
China’s top state planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission, said “arduous efforts” are needed to sustain growth recovery amid an unfavorable external environment and the global economy’s loss of momentum.
China’s yuan strengthened on Friday as traders remained optimistic that more measures to support the economy would emerge from the conference.
Reporting by Bernard Orr and Albee Zhang in Beijing, Brenda Goh and Jing Wang in Shanghai, Farah Master in Hong Kong, Stella Qiu in Sydney and Karin Strohecker in London; writing by John Geddie; Edited by Simon Cameron Moore
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