Covid-19: China’s broadest outbreak after Wuhan in December 2019
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: As it did in 2020, China is sitting tightly on information about the exact numbers of any deaths and infections because of the fresh outbreak of the Covid-19 in the last couple of weeks but ‘circumstantial, and filtering out reports’ show that the country is currently amid its biggest health crisis after the pandemic was first reported in December 2019.
Over 400 fresh infections have been reported across Chinese provinces in the last two weeks as Beijing is bracing to host a major Communist Party conclave starting November 8. It will be among the last significant meetings of the Central Committee or plenum, before next year’s once-in-five-year Congress where President Xi Jinping is expected to begin a third five-year term.
On Tuesday, specifying no reason, the Chinese government urged the people to stock up on essential supplies in case of emergencies. The Ministry of Commerce’s notice came amid ongoing coronavirus lockdowns and concerns over vegetable supplies after unusually heavy rain damaged crops, according to a BBC report.
The ministry also directed local authorities to keep supply chains running smoothly and prices stable. The state-controlled media sought to quell concerns, but many panicked people rushed to the markets to stock up supplies.
The Economic Daily, a Chinese Communist Party-backed newspaper, said the government’s advice was aimed at ensuring that households remained prepared in case of a lockdown in their area. The People’s Daily said it was not unusual, but it had come when vegetable prices and Covid-19 cases increased.
The media reported China is concerned with the fresh outbreak of the pandemic, particularly as it is preparing to host the Winter Olympics in February 2022. This Wednesday, 93 fresh cases and a dozen asymptomatic cases were reported, and they shut Shanghai Disneyland down for two days when a weekend visitor tested positive for Covid-19 after returning home. Over 30,000 people tested at Disneyland on Sunday, with visitors kept inside the park until midnight.
Also, hundreds of thousands of residents in the remote south-eastern city of Ruili on the border with high-risk Myanmar have been banned from leaving for months.
More provinces across China are currently fighting the pandemic than they did any time since it emerged in Wuhan in 2019. The latest, and broadest, outbreak is because of the highly infectious Delta variant, which itself now has some 55 sub-variants, crisscrossing China, negating efforts to thwart its transmission.
Over 600 locally transmitted infections were reported in 19 of 31 provinces in the latest outbreak in the world’s second-largest economy. On Wednesday, three more provinces viz. Central Chongqing, Henan, and Jiangsu on the eastern coast reported fresh cases.
Despite the official claims of maintaining a so-called Covid-Zero approach, flare-ups are coming faster, spreading further and evading many of the measures that previously controlled the virus, media reported on Wednesday.
China’s capital, Beijing itself, reported nine infections on Wednesday, including one asymptomatic. Its total case count in the current wave now stands at 38, the highest for Beijing since a pre-Delta outbreak last January and February. They halted ticket sales into the city for trains from 123 stations in 23 regions, officials said.
The authorities quarantined children in two Beijing schools after finding a vaccinated teacher infected. Another 16 schools were shut because their staff might have come in touch with this teacher at the vaccination venue.
