China braces itself for Covid-19 spread to countryside as holidays near

China set out urgent plans to protect rural communities from Covid-19 on Friday as millions of city-dwellers planned holidays for the first time in years after Beijing abandoned its stringent system of lockdowns and travel curbs.

China’s move last week to start aligning with a world that has largely opened up to live with the virus, followed historic protests against President Xi Jinping’s signature ‘zero-Covid’ policies designed to stamp out Covid.

But the excitement that met this dramatic U-turn has quickly given way to concerns that China is unprepared for the wave of infections and the blow it could deliver to the world’s second-largest economy.

China reported 2,157 new symptomatic Covid-19 infections for Dec 15 compared with 2,000 a day.

The official figures, however, do not capture the whole picture as testing has dropped and are at odds with signs of wider spread in cities where long queues outside fever clinics and empty pharmacy shelves have become a common sight.

There is particular concern about China’s hinterland in the run up to China’s Lunar New Year holiday starting on Jan 22.

Rural areas are likely to be inundated with travelers returning to their hometowns and villages, which have had little exposure to the virus during the three years since the pandemic erupted.

China’s National Health Commission on Friday said it was ramping up vaccinations and building stocks of ventilators, essential drugs, and test kits in rural areas. It also advised travelers to reduce contact with elderly relatives.

Mainland China’s international borders remain largely shut, but recent decisions to abandon testing prior to domestic travel and disable apps that tracked people’s journey history have freed up people to move around the country.

One of China’s most populous provinces Henan canceled all holidays for healthcare staff until the end of March to ensure “a smooth transition” as Covid-19 restrictions ease, state media reported late Thursday.

Multiple cities across the country of 1.4 billion people also opened new vaccination sites to encourage the public to take booster shots, the state-run newspaper reported.

“Go all out” was the message from China’s state asset regulator in a statement late Thursday that urged government-owned drugmakers to ensure supplies of Covid-related medicines to meet “the rapid increase” in demand.

The Covid-19 scare in China also led people in Hong Kong, Macau and in some neighborhoods in Australia to go in search for fever medicines and test kits for family and friends on the mainland.

Thanks to the government’s previously uncompromising controls, China got off lightly compared with many other countries during the pandemic over the past three years, but now many Chinese are resigned to catching the virus at some point.

 

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES