On the 22nd of November, Beijing closes its parks, museums, and malls. Cities in China return to mass testing and authorities struggle to slow down the rise of new Covid-19 infections, writes Reuters.
On the 22nd of November, Chine informed about 28 127 Covid-19 cases, and this number is getting close to the peak numbers of April. The amount of infected people grows every day, and it poses a threat to China’s adjustments to the zero-Covid policy. The country was lifting some of the harsh rules for containing infections, like whole city lockdowns. However, the spread of infection makes new rules and Bejing is back to strict entry rules that include testing for three days.
Shanghai closed culture and entertainment sites in seven of 16 city districts.
Even with changes in Covid-19 policy, China remains the only country with such strict rules and precautions. It creates some tensions, for example, users of social networks call out Qatar, where thousands of people sit close to each other without masks while China is panicking.
Investors are concerned as well since they were hoping that economy will see some recovery. Meanwhile, authorities say that the zero-Covid policy from president Xi Jinping is saving lives.
Experts say that there are some preconditions to opening the country: widespread vaccination with boosters and a change of the information tone in public space. Authorities talk about building more hospital capacity and are formulating a vaccination drive. At the same time, businesses are living in constant fear about the future. Customers are avoiding spending more than necessary and it has a negative impact on businesses, especially customer-facing ones.