China’s cities battle first wave of covid surge as wider spread looms

A worker in a protective suit removes a cone in front of a hearse outside the funeral home

BEIJING:

The streets of major Chinese cities were eerily quiet on Sunday as people stayed at home to protect themselves from the surge in COVID-19 cases that has hit urban centers from north to south.

China is currently in the first of three expected waves of COVID cases this winter, according to the country’s chief epidemiologist Wu Zunyou. Cases could multiply across the country if people follow typical travel patterns of returning to their home areas in a mass transit movement for the Lunar New Year holiday next month.

China has yet to officially report any COVID deaths since Dec. 7, when the country abruptly ended most key restrictions for a zero-tolerance COVID policy following unprecedented public protests against the protocol. The strategy had been advocated by President Xi Jinping.

As part of the relaxation of zero COVID restrictions, mass testing for the virus has ended, casting doubt on whether officially reported case numbers can capture the full scale of the outbreak. China reported some 2,097 new symptomatic COVID infections on December 17.

In Beijing, the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has already affected services from catering to package delivery. Funeral homes and crematoriums throughout the city of 22 million are also struggling to keep up with demand.

Social media posts also showed empty subways in the northwestern Chinese city of Xian, while internet users complained about delivery delays.

In Chengdu, the streets were deserted but food delivery times were improving, a resident surnamed Zhang said, as services began to adjust to the recent rise in cases.

However, getting antigen test kits remained difficult, he said. His recent order had been redirected to hospitals, she said, citing the supplier.

‘1 PEAK, 3 WAVES, 3 MONTHS’

In Shanghai, authorities said schools should move most classes online starting Monday, and in nearby Hangzhou most grades were encouraged to end the winter semester early.

In Guangzhou, those who already attend online classes, as well as preschool-age children, should not prepare for the return to school, the education bureau said.

Speaking at a conference in Beijing on Saturday, chief epidemiologist Wu of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the current outbreak would peak this winter and unfold in three waves over about three months, according to a report from state media about his speech.

The first wave would run from mid-December to mid-January, mostly in cities, before a second wave began from late January to mid-February next year, triggered by the movement of people ahead of the holiday week. New year.

China will celebrate Lunar New Year starting on January 21. On the holiday, hundreds of millions of people typically travel home to spend time with family.

A third wave of cases would run from late February to mid-March when people return to work after vacation, Wu said.

A US-based research institute said this week that the country could see an explosion of cases and that more than a million people in China could die of COVID by 2023.

Wu said that serious cases in China had decreased in recent years and that vaccination that had already been carried out offered some degree of protection. He said those in the community who are vulnerable should be protected, while recommending booster shots for the general public.

Nearly 87% of those over the age of 60 have been fully vaccinated, but only 66.4% of people over the age of 80 have completed a full course of vaccination, the official Xinhua news agency said.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)