On Friday, an increase in China-wide outbreak of COVID-19 cases was reported. The CCP eased up the restrictions in an effort to reverse a national economic recession.
Official data showed that there was a decrease in COVID cases because testing is not happening in all regions of the nation. However, with the government’s decision to end mandatory testing for many of them, those numbers may come back up.
China’s government began to loosen controls on Nov. 11, after it promised to minimize their cost and disruption. Imports fell 10.9% from a year ago in November, which shows signs of weakening demand, despite efforts made by the government to increase imports and boost domestic trade.
Auto sales also dropped 10.5% in October-even though China has made efforts to increase sales domestically since last year in an effort to grow the domestic economy.
Public health experts and economists warn that restrictions probably won’t go away until at least mid-2023. The vaccines for old age people will take months, and hospitals need to be increased to handle the increase in cases.
The Chinese officials also announced a large-scale vaccination campaign in various regions last week.
On Wednesday, the federal government announced a few more changes to the COVID-19 quarantine regulation. This was a big decision considering many people have complained about the center’s unsanitary conditions and crowds being an inconvenience.
The requirement for people to show a negative viral load test at subway stations, supermarket lines, etc., was dropped Wednesday. However, it still is needed at schools and hospitals.
The need for hundreds of millions of people to be tested as often as once a day in some areas over previous years helped the government to identify asymptomatic cases. But now, the need for a health code isn’t mandatory.
Further, it’s unclear whether any of the changes were a response to the turmoil that took place in China in previous weeks.
Instead of continuing to talk about the official 5.5% annual growth target, party leaders stopped after the economy shrank by 2.6%. This shrink came after factories and industrial areas were shut down.
Even though forecasts for the global economy are still strong, private-sector economists have been cutting them to 3.2% growth this year. The growth would be less than half of last year’s 8.1% and will be the weakest in the past few decades.
During the protests, pharmacies overflowed with customers who rushed to purchase medications to treat sore throats and headaches due to the canceled out of rules requiring pharmacists to report purchases.
Hong Kong has been busy cracking down on cases of COVID-19 while southern China city tries to revive its struggling economy. At the same time, they are implementing an anti-virus strategy so that they can keep travelers safe.
A few weeks ago, 75,000 people in Hong Kong were diagnosed with COVID-19 after having been exposed to the virus. The major increase is explained by excluding an unknown number of people who stayed home and didn’t report symptoms to the government.
