This is the first public comment from the strong man of Beijing since the unexpected abandonment of most health measures, a sign that the time is serious. Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered Monday, December 26 to “build a bulwark” against Covid-19 and “protect” lives in China, as his country faces an outbreak of contamination after the abandonment of health restrictions. .
“The prevention and control of Covid-19 in China is facing a new situation with new tasks,” said Xi Jinping on Monday quoted by state television CCTV. “We need to carry out a more targeted patriotic health campaign,” Xi Jinping ordered, without further details.
The end of the “zero Covid” policy
Since 2020, China has imposed strict measures, in the name of a so-called “zero Covid” policy which has made it possible to protect those most at risk and those who are poorly vaccinated. The power put an end without notice on December 7 to most of the measures, against a backdrop of growing exasperation of the population and considerable impact on the economy.
This lifting of restrictions could lead to the death of around a million people in the coming months, according to estimates from several Western studies. China announced on Sunday that it would no longer publish Covid statistics. They were widely criticized because of their total discrepancy with the current epidemic wave hitting the country.
An influx of bodies into crematoriums
Since then, the number of cases has exploded, raising fears of high mortality among the oldest, who are particularly vulnerable. Many crematoriums interviewed by Agence France Presse have reported an unusually high influx of bodies to be cremated in recent days. A situation largely ignored by the Chinese media.
Hospitals are also overwhelmed, while anti-flu drugs are more difficult to find in pharmacies, as the country learns to live with the virus.
Controversial statistics
Previously, quasi-compulsory PCR tests made it possible to reliably follow the epidemic trend. But infected people now carry out self-tests at home and rarely report the results to the authorities, which prevents having reliable figures. According to the official report, the most populous country on the planet has recorded only six deaths from Covid since the lifting of restrictions. A figure largely underestimated according to many experts.
The Chinese have noticed in recent days a glaring discrepancy between official statistics and the contamination of a large part of their relatives, or even their death.
The large metropolis of Canton (south), populated by 19 million inhabitants, has thus announced the postponement “after January 10” of the funeral ceremonies. Another source of controversy: under a new methodology from the authorities, only people who died directly from respiratory failure linked to Covid are now counted as deceased from the disease.
Provinces exceed one million contaminations
Some local governments, however, are beginning to put forward estimates of the scale of the epidemic. Health authorities in Zhejiang (east), south of Shanghai, ruled on Sunday that the number of daily contaminations now exceeded the million mark in this province with a population of 65 million people.
Half a million inhabitants are also infected daily in Qingdao (east), a city of 10 million inhabitants, estimated a municipal official quoted by the official press.
The end of mandatory quarantines on arrival in the country
China will end mandatory quarantines on arrival in the country on January 8, health authorities announced on Monday. From next month, only a negative test within 48 hours will be required to enter Chinese territory, the Health Commission, which acts as a ministry, said in a note.