Shanghai: China on Saturday marked the first day of “Chun Yun”, a 40-day period of Lunar New Year travel, known as the world’s biggest annual migration of people before the pandemic, which brought a huge increase in travelers and COVID-19. Prepared for the spread of -19. Infection. This Lunar New Year public holiday, which officially runs through January 21, will be the first since 2020 without domestic travel restrictions. The past month has seen China witness the dramatic collapse of its “zero-Covid” regime after historic protests against a policy that included frequent testing, restricted movement, massive lockdowns and massive damage to the world’s No. 2 economy.
Investors are hoping the reopening will revive the $17 trillion economy, which has suffered the slowest growth in nearly half a century.
But the sudden changes have exposed many of China’s 1.4 billion population to the virus for the first time, triggering a wave of infections that is overwhelming some hospitals, emptying pharmacy shelves of drugs and Long lines are forming at the cremation grounds.
Lunar New Year Public Holiday: Over 2 Billion People Will Travel In The Next 40 Days
The transport ministry said on Friday that it expects more than 2 billion passengers to travel in the next 40 days, an increase of 99.5% year-on-year and reaching 70.3% of travel numbers in 2019.
There was a mixed reaction online to that news, with some comments appreciating the freedom of returning to hometown and celebrating the Lunar New Year with family for the first time in years.
However, with many others saying they will not travel this year, concern about infecting elderly relatives remains a common theme.
One such comment on Weibo such as Twitter said, “For fear of bringing back the poison, I dare not go back to my hometown.”
There are widespread concerns that the mass migration of workers from cities to their hometowns will lead to an increase in infections in smaller towns and rural areas that are less equipped to deal with ICU beds and ventilators.
Authorities say they are boosting grassroots medical services, opening more rural fever clinics and setting up a “green channel” for high-risk patients, especially elderly people with underlying health conditions , which can be directly transferred from villages to higher level hospitals.
“China’s rural areas are extensive, the population is large and the medical resources per capita are relatively insufficient,” Mi Feng, spokesman for the National Health Commission, said on Saturday.
“It is necessary to provide convenient services, accelerate vaccination for the elderly in rural areas, and build a grassroots level of defense.”
The wave of Kovid-19 infection in China may have reached its peak
Some analysts are now saying that the current wave of infections may have peaked.
Ernan Cui, an analyst at Gavecal Dragonomics in Beijing, cited several online surveys indicating that rural areas were already thought to have widespread COVID infection, with most areas already infection had peaked, noting that “there was not much difference in the middle.” urban and rural areas.”
On Sunday, China will reopen its border with Hong Kong and end the quarantine requirement for travelers arriving from abroad. It effectively opens the door for many Chinese to travel abroad for the first time since the borders were closed nearly three years ago without fear of being quarantined upon their return.
Jillian Xin, who has three children and lives in Hong Kong, said she was “incredibly excited” about the border opening, especially as it means seeing family in Beijing more easily.
“For us, opening the border means my children can visit their grandparents for the first time since the pandemic began,” she said. “Our two children have never seen their grandpa, so we can’t wait to meet him.”
The surge in cases from China has raised concern internationally and more than a dozen countries are now demanding COVID tests from travelers from China. The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that China’s COVID data understated the number of hospitalizations and deaths from the disease.
Chinese officials and state media have defended their handling of the outbreak, downplayed the severity of the surge and denounced foreign travel requirements for its residents.
On Saturday in Hong Kong, people who had made an appointment had to queue for about 90 minutes at a center for PCR tests required for travel to countries including mainland China.
For most of the pandemic, China poured resources into a massive PCR testing program to track and trace COVID-19 cases, but the focus is now shifting to vaccines and treatments.
In Shanghai, for example, the city government announced on Friday the end of free PCR tests for residents from January 8.
A circular published on Saturday by four government ministries signaled the redistribution of financial resources for treatment, outlining a plan for public finance to subsidize 60% of treatment costs by March 31.
Meanwhile, sources told Reuters that China is in talks with Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) to secure a license that would allow domestic drugmakers to manufacture a generic version of the US firm’s COVID antiviral drug paxlovid in China. and allow distribution.
Many Chinese have been attempting to buy the drug overseas and it has been shipped to China.
On the vaccines front, China’s CanSino Biologics Inc (6185.HK) announced that it has started trial production for its COVID mRNA booster vaccine, known as CS-2034.
China has relied on nine domestically developed vaccines approved for use, including inactivated vaccines, but none have been adapted to target the highly-transmissible Omicron variant and its offshoots that are currently in circulation.
The country has an overall vaccination rate above 90%, according to government data released last month, but the rate for adults who get booster shots drops to 57.9% and 42.3% for those 80 and older.
China reported three new COVID deaths in the mainland on Friday, bringing its official virus death toll to 5,267 since the start of the pandemic, one of the lowest in the world.
International health experts believe Beijing’s narrow definition of COVID deaths does not reflect the true toll, and some predict more than a million deaths this year.