This outbreak has spread much faster than previous waves of less contagious variants, with daily cases skyrocketing from a few dozen in February to more than 5,100 on Tuesday, the highest since the 2020 outbreak began in Wuhan.
This number may seem low compared to other countries, but it is alarmingly high for a country that has struggled to eradicate outbreaks and chains of transmission with a strict Covid zero policy throughout the pandemic.
As of Tuesday, cases have been reported in 21 provinces and municipalities across the country, including the capital, Beijing, and other major cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Cases could still be in the thousands, but as of Tuesday, 37 million people were in isolation.
Here’s what we know about the outbreak in China.
How did this wave start?
The number of cases began to rise at the beginning of the month in several provinces of the country, including Shandong in the east, Guangdong in the south and Jilin in the northeast.
By March 6, experts were warning that the situation was “serious” in some places, but expressed confidence that “China still has the ability to control it,” the state-run tabloid Global Times reported at the time.
Jilin Province, bordering North Korea, soon became a major hotspot with a cluster of universities, sparking public outrage online after Quarantined students have complained about poor conditions during campus lockdown.
More than 4,000 infections reported on Tuesday were reported in Jilin. Nearly half of all infections in this outbreak occurred in this province. — and the number of cases there has yet to peak, officials warned on Tuesday.
Authorities and state media say it is still unclear how the first few outbreaks started.
But a few Factors including imported cases and the prevalence of the Omicron variant have exacerbated the severity of the outbreak across the country, Global Times reported, citing Wu Zunya, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Which variant is covered?
Omicron was the driving force behind this surge. One of the reasons cases spread so quickly and are harder to track down is Omicron’s milder symptoms and shorter incubation period. according to state media.
A highly infectious variant has now replaced Delta as the country’s dominant strain, accounting for about 80% of recent cases, Wu told the Global Times.He added that experts see both BA.1, the original Omicron, and BA.2, a sub-variant that was first discovered in January and nicknamed the “invisible variant” because it can look like other Covids at first glance in lab tests. . options.
According to early studies from the UK and Denmark, BA.2 is transmitted about 30% more often than BA.1. It currently causes about 1 in 5 cases of Covid-19 worldwide, with cases in dozens of countries, including the US, according to the World Health Organization. BA.2 was found during the outbreak in Jilin province, according to state news agency CCTV.
Whether it causes more severe illness is not yet clear, but some studies suggest it is unlikely to lead to more hospitalizations and deaths, in part because it appeared so soon after the initial Omicron wave that many people have protective antibodies from either the recent infection or revaccination.
What locks and restrictions apply?
Five cities with more than 37 million residents are currently at various levels of lockdown.
Residents of Changchun, Jilin, Shenzhen and Dongguan cities are prohibited from leaving their areas, except for essential workers and emergency services. Each household is only allowed to send one person for groceries every two to three days.
The fifth city, Langfang, went even further by forbidding all residents from leaving their homes except in emergencies.
Some of these cities have suspended public transport and indoor restaurants. closed schools and are conducting several rounds of mass testing for all residents. The ninth round of testing began in Jilin City on Tuesday, with pictures showing residents lining up in the snow, wrapped tightly.
Jilin Province has also implemented travel restrictions preventing residents from leaving the province or traveling between cities within the province.
But these lockdowns also pose a huge logistical challenge for the government, with CCTV reporting that the province only has enough medical supplies for a few days.
According to the Global Times, authorities are now seeking to build up healthcare capacity in hard-hit areas, such as building temporary treatment centers in Changchun and Jilin city and sending thousands of troops to help control Covid.
Will China stick to zero Covid?
As increasingly contagious variants proliferate in 2021 — Delta, then Omicron — many countries have abandoned a strict zero-Covid approach in favor of living with the virus.
China and its territories, including Hong Kong, also experiencing a serious wave, are the biggest adversaries.
While some Chinese leaders and academics are hinting that China may eventually abandon this strategy, it probably won’t happen any time soon if the current rhetoric about zeroing cases is any sign.
Han Jun, the governor of Jilin Province, promised on Monday to stop all community broadcasts for a week, prompting ridicule on Chinese social media, many calling it an empty promise. Others urged him to deal with more pressing problems first, such as shortages of food and other necessities. “Just think how people suffered when Xi’an aimed for ‘zero transmission from the community’,” reads one comment on the Twitter-like Weibo platform. The city of Xi’an was locked down for more than a month from December to January. some residents complain they can’t get food, basic necessities like menstrual pads, and even emergency medical care, painting a picture of local government dysfunction and causing public outcry across the country.
“It’s better to be fully prepared and then gradually (clear the transmission of Covid),” a Weibo comment read. “If we hurry, people will get hurt.”