Zero tolerance and lockdown Despite strict restrictions, the virus puts the country of 1.4 billion inhabitants in difficulty
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Spike in Covid cases in China, March 2022
Millions of people in isolation, an entire province – Jilin, in north-east of China – in lockdown, and the specter of a virus that is returning to trouble a country of 1.4 billion inhabitants. And the picture of China in March 2022, with infections at the highest levels of the last two years, despite the strict restrictions put in place, and never withdrawn.
Another 5,280 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded on Monday, more than double those of Sunday. This was announced by the National Health Commission in its daily updates, from which it also emerges that the data updates the highs of the last two years, since the Wuhan crisis. The record leap from the numbers recorded in China so far was fueled by the surge in Omicron outbreaks nationwide, with more than 3,000 home broadcasts in Jilin province , in lockdown.
Other significant infections have been confirmed in Shandong (106), Shaanxi (53), Tianjin (51) and Guangdong(48), where there is the blockade in Shenzhen and its 17.5 million inhabitants. The number of confirmed infections of Covid-19 in China, both local and imported, rose to 120,504, of which 11,984 related to patients still under medical treatment and 8 in serious condition.
A total of 4,636 people in mainland China have lost their lives to the virus since the start of the pandemic.
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Spike in Covid cases in China, March 2022 From “zero tolerance” to “dynamic zero”
The Shenzhen technology hub and the northeastern province of Jilin are the latest locations in which China has imposed a lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19. Although infections remain at much lower levels than in other countries, Beijing implements a “zero infection” policy which aims to eradicate the virus in the Asian country, even at the expense of repercussions on the economy, which already suffered significant last year decelerations in the post-Covid recovery. But as long as it can go on like this
For the future, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang has promised “more targeted and science-based” measures, depending on the progress of the epidemic. Liang Wannian, head of the team of government experts against the virus, clarified that the static “zero cases” and the dynamic “approach are not the same thing: we are not yet able to prevent a single case, but we have the ability and confidence to quickly eradicate the epidemic when one emerges. ” Adjustments towards greater coexistence are in the evaluation phase, but it is certain that lockdowns and buffers, to date, do not eliminate the risk of contagion and slow down the economic recovery.
At the moment, however, the line is still that of “zero contagions”, which reappeared in these days,
The Chinese strategy, coordinated at the national level by Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chunlan – the only woman to sit among the 25 members of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China – is based on the establishment of strict lockdowns, with the possibility of going out to shop for only one once every two days for members of a single household, and sometimes sudden. The Chinese receive the announcement of the restrictions through the WeChat accounts – the messaging and services platform operated by TenCent, a sort of Chinese “super-app” – of the local administrations involved, as happened in recent days, in Shenzhen and Jilin, in what is the first provincial lockdown in China since the outbreak of the Wuhan epidemic in early 2020.
HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP via Getty Images
Increase of Covid cases in Shanghai Lockdown in Jilin province
The cradle of the new Chinese car industry and home of Faw (First Automobile Works), the largest car manufacturer in the country, stops. The province of Jilin – with its 24 million inhabitants – is in lockdown in the context of the new anti-pandemic squeeze launched by Beijing in line with the goal of ‘zero tolerance’ to suppress infections as quickly as possible. The capital Changchun, which has about 9 million inhabitants, was already shut down last week, forcing Toyota Motor Corp. to suspend the operations of its plant. Around fifty large car factories located in the 9 cities of the Chinese province, which borders North Korea and Russia to the east, are in the grip. In Changchun alone there are 26.
The exit from the province is allowed only in special circumstances and with an ad hoc authorization, while in case of return it is necessary to “strictly respect” a period of quarantine. The violations, according to an announcement by the provincial authorities, will be severely punished “in accordance with the law of the People’s Republic of China on the prevention and control of infectious diseases and with other laws and regulations” on the subject.
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Lockdown in Changchun, Jilin, China Lockdwon in Guangdong
The Chinese Silicon Valley has also stopped with the lockdown of Shenzhen, the technological hub of China. Apple suppliers, starting with Foxconn, have suspended production with the more than 17 million residents of the area forced to stay at home and for the start of the three cycles of mass testing. But in Guangdong there are also Huawei, Oppo and TCL. The blockade of activities is a further blow to the global supply chain, already grappling with the shortage of semiconductors, the war in Ukraine and the related sanctions against Russia.
The nightmare is that a scenario similar to that of Hong Kong can reproduce, bent by tens of thousands of infections and over 200 thousand people in quarantine on 7.4 million people. But on the 1.4 billion inhabitants of China it would be a disaster.
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Covid Isolation Facilities, Hong Kong

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