Some 30 million Chinese confined: faced with its worst epidemic resurgence since the first wave of 2020, China is increasing quarantines without managing to eradicate the Omicron strain.
China on Tuesday reported 5,280 cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, more than double the previous day. This is one of the highest daily tolls since February 2020 and the quarantine of Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus was first detected.
In Beijing, relatively preserved according to the authorities with only six cases announced on Tuesday, the inhabitants noticed a reinforcement of the controls of the health passports. “Prevention measures have worked well so far. And now it all starts again… will it never end? lamented a Pekingese named Yan.
Since the spring of 2020, the Asian giant had managed to largely stem the epidemic by resorting to strict containment measures, but the Omicron strain has given rise in recent months to numerous outbreaks throughout the country.
If the Chinese figures remain modest compared to the balance sheets recorded elsewhere in the world, they are high for the country.
China has officially counted only around 120,000 COVID-19 patients (not counting asymptomatic people) in all and for all since the start of the epidemic, as well as 4,636 deaths.
The last death attributed to the coronavirus officially dates back to the beginning of 2021.
Vaccinate seniors
At a press conference, health officials called on older people to get vaccinated, echoing the situation in Hong Kong, where many unvaccinated elderly people have succumbed to the epidemic in recent weeks.
In mainland China, only 80 percent of over-60s have received two doses, officials said.
Within days, at least 13 cities were placed under quarantine. According to an AFP count, nearly 30 million people are now confined to their homes, particularly in the technological metropolis of Shenzhen, at the gates of Hong Kong.
These measures have led to the temporary closure of many factories, including those of the Taiwanese giant Foxconn, Apple’s main supplier, in the megalopolis of 17 million inhabitants.
These economic disturbances, likely to further affect global supply chains, caused the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to fall by nearly 6%. Technology stocks are the most penalized.
Unemployment jump
“So far, the ports of Shenzhen and Shanghai continue to operate normally. But a quarantine of these ports would exacerbate global supply problems, in addition to the disruptions already caused by the Russia-Ukraine war,” observes economist Tommy Wu, of the firm Oxford Economics.
A sign of economic fragility, the unemployment rate jumped during the first two months of the year to 5.5%, against 5.1% in December.
But the resurgence of the epidemic is first and foremost at the other end of the vast country: Tuesday’s figures were greatly weighed down by the toll of Jilin province, bordering North Korea, a country which escaped COVID- 19 according to his authorities. More than 3,000 contaminations have been recorded in Jilin in the past 24 hours.
Shanghai, the country’s largest city, reported just nine new cases on Tuesday, but authorities have locked down many neighborhoods. The famous Bund quay, on the banks of the Huangpu, which faces the emblematic skyscrapers of the metropolis and generally attracts hordes of tourists, was almost deserted.
Many domestic flights were canceled Tuesday at Shanghai airport, as well as in Beijing.