COVID-19 in China | Shenzhen eases lockdown to save economy

(Beijing) The Chinese technological metropolis of Shenzhen (south) ordered the partial lifting of anti-COVID-19 containment on Friday, in particular in its port, one of the largest in the world and vital for trade.

The decision of the city of 17.5 million inhabitants, located at the gates of Hong Kong, comes as President Xi Jinping called the day before to “minimize” the impact of prevention measures on the Chinese economy.

China is experiencing its worst epidemic outbreak in almost two years, with several thousand new daily positive cases in recent days, spread over around 20 provinces, or two thirds of the country.

In response, the authorities confined tens of millions of people in the country of 1.4 billion inhabitants.

The Ministry of Health on Friday still reported 4,365 infections the day before – including 105 in Shenzhen.

The southern city, which brings together thousands of factories of big names in technology, had been placed in total confinement on Sunday after the detection of cases of COVID-19, linked to the epidemic which is raging in Hong Kong.

Public transport can now resume, as well as administrations and economic activity in five districts of the city, the town hall announced on Thursday evening.

The transmission of the coronavirus has been stopped in these five districts, which represent almost half of the vast territory of the municipality, argued the municipality.

Among the districts concerned is that of Yantian, where one of the largest ports in the world is located, providing alone 10.5% of the containers used by Chinese foreign trade.

In danger

The lifting of restrictions illustrates the authorities’ concern for economic activity after two years of a “zero COVID-19” strategy – which consists of doing everything (lockdowns, quarantines, contact tracing, border screening) to prevent the appearance new cases.

Xi Jinping ordered the continuation of this policy on Thursday evening in order “to stem the spread of the epidemic as quickly as possible”.

But he also called for “minimizing the impact of the epidemic on economic and social development”, as Beijing announced for this year its weakest growth target for 30 years (“around 5.5%”) .

One of the main suppliers of the American computer giant Apple, the Taiwanese company Foxconn, had already indicated on Wednesday that it had resumed part of its production in Shenzhen.

The “zero COVID-19” strategy has made it possible to limit the number of patients to around 125,000 for two years, according to official figures. The country officially deplores less than 5,000 dead.

Since the spring of 2020, life has been almost normal in the country, but the outbreak linked to the Omicron variant has changed the situation.

” A lesson ”

Across the border from Shenzhen, the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong, also adept at “zero COVID-19”, has one of the highest death rates from Omicron in the world – especially among seniors. not vaccinated.

China’s health ministry said Friday that just 51 percent of people over 80 in mainland China had received at least two doses.

“The epidemic in Hong Kong has given us a particularly enlightening lesson,” said Wang Hesheng, the vice-minister of health, during a press conference on Friday.

“If the vaccination rate of the elderly is low, the death rate […] will be high,” he warned.

He blamed the recent outbreak on the “laxity” of some politicians and the lack of effectiveness of measures in some provinces.

The northeast of the country remains for the moment by far the most affected, the province of Jilin, bordering North Korea, having reported alone 60% of the national total of new infections announced on Friday.

However, China has not reported any new deaths linked to COVID-19, which would be unheard of for more than a year.