China relaxes Covid-19 controls amid rising infection risks

Beijing/Shanghai — As many Chinese embraced new freedoms on Thursday after the country dropped key parts of its tough zero-Covid-19 regime, there was mounting concern that a virus that had largely been kept in check, could soon run wild.

Three years into the pandemic, many in China had been itching for Beijing to start to align its rigid virus prevention measures with the rest of the world, which has largely opened up in an effort to live with the disease.

Those frustrations boiled over into widespread protests in November, the biggest show of public discontent since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

Without saying it was a response to those protests, some cities and regions began relaxing Covid-19 controls, in moves that heralded a nationwide loosening of the rules unveiled by the National Health Commission (NHC) on Wednesday.

The NHC said infected people with mild symptoms can now quarantine at home and it dropped the need for testing and health status checks on mobile apps for a variety of activities including travelling around the country.

Domestic ticket sales for tourist and leisure spots have soared, according to state press, while some people took to social media to reveal they had tested positive for the virus, which had previously carried a heavy stigma in China.

Others expressed caution.

“I know Covid-19 is not so ‘horrifying’ now, but it is still contagious and will hurt,” said one post on the Weibo platform. “The fear brought to our heart cannot be easily dissipated.”

“Too many positives,” said another Weibo user.

China reported 21,439 new local Covid-19 infections on December 7, down slightly from the previous day and below a peak of 40,052 cases on November 27. Cases have been trending lower recently as authorities across the country dropped testing requirements.

Various multimillion-dollar projects to build testing laboratories across the country, from Shandong province in the east to Sichuan in the southwest, have been scrapped as China  cut down the need for testing, Shanghai government-backed news outlet The Paper reported.

China and Hong Kong stocks lifted Asian equity markets on Thursday, as these still cautious steps towards reopening were seen giving the world’s second-largest economy a chance to regather momentum.

China’s yuan, which has also recovered some ground against the dollar in recent weeks, was little changed on Thursday.

Ill-prepared

Shanghai, the most populous city, which endured one of the country’s longest and harshest lockdowns, on Thursday dropped the need for Covid-19 tests to enter restaurants or entertainment venues.

There has been no mention of China’s “zero-Covid” policy in recent announcements, raising suspicions that the term is becoming defunct as the government gradually moves the country towards a state of living with the virus. Top officials have also been softening their tone on the dangers posed by the virus.

But, while adopting the new more relaxed controls, some cities urged residents to remain vigilant.

“The public should maintain a good awareness of personal protection, and be the first responsible person for their own health,” Zhengzhou, the central city home to the world's largest iPhone factory, said in a message to residents.

It urged residents to wear masks, maintain social distancing, seek medical attention for fever and other Covid-19 symptoms and, especially for the elderly, to get vaccinated.

Some analysts and medical experts say China is ill-prepared for a major surge in infections, partly due to low vaccination rates among vulnerable, older people and its fragile health-care system.

“It [China] may have to pay for its procrastination on embracing a ‘living with Covid-19’ approach,” Nomura analysts said in a note on Thursday. Infection rates in China are only about 0.13%, “far from the level needed for herd immunity”, Nomura said.

Feng Zijian, a former official in China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told the China Youth Daily that up to 60% of the population could be infected in the first large-scale wave before stabilising. “Ultimately, around 80%-90% of people will be infected,” he said.

The country will probably face a large-scale outbreak in the next one to two months, state-owned magazine China Newsweek reported on Thursday citing health experts.

China’s tally of 5,235 Covid-19-related deaths is a tiny fraction of its population of 1.4-billion, and extremely low by global standards. Some experts have warned that the toll could rise above 1.5-million if the exit is too hasty.

But, even with the dangers, for many there is an acceptance that life must go on.

“It’s impossible to kill this virus completely, maybe just live with it and hope it will evolve into flu,” said Yan, an unemployed Beijing resident, who said he hopes a further opening up of China’s economy would help him find work.

Reuters