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Zero-Covid at what price? Chinese researchers are treading on sensitive ground
Authorities in Shanghai have denied a report by a leading Chinese real estate research firm that claimed more than a third of shops in a major mall had been shuttered because of strict Covid curbs.To get more news about coronavirus update china, you can visit shine news official website.
The report by China Real Estate Information Corp. (CRIC), published late last month, quickly went viral. It claimed that vacancy rates in the city’s malls were surging to an alarming level because of the restrictions and said 34% of shops were closed in a landmark mall in Shanghai’s Lujiazui financial district.
On average, 9% of shops in Shanghai’s 20 major malls have been closed since the Covid situation worsened in the second quarter, significantly higher than the 5% level at which the malls’ overall operations would be affected, according to the research firm.The Shanghai Observer, a website run by the Shanghai government’s official newspaper, on Friday said the methodology used by CRIC was at odds with industry practice.
According to statistics it attributed to CBRE Group — a global commercial real estate service firm — the average vacancy rate in Shanghai’s malls was between 6.7% and 8.2% over the past three years. The Shanghai Observer also attacked some media outlets who picked up the report for “exaggerating the truth” and “taking the numbers out of context.”
Shanghai was under a strict lockdown for two months earlier this year, and continues to face restrictions in parts of the city where new cases have flared up.In recent weeks, the Chinese government has significantly tightened Covid restrictions to contain the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Analysts say that the country is unlikely to relax its Covid rules before the Communist Party congress beginning on October 16.
President Xi Jinping, who is expected to seek an unprecedented third term, will not want to see any uncontrollable rise in Covid cases until his political future is secured, according to experts.
But the restrictions are hurting the economy — analysts are forecasting growth of just 3% this year — and leading to rising public discontent on the internet. In recent days, many social media users have complained about the havoc caused by frequent lockdowns and endless testing, from food shortages to poor job and income prospects.The CRIC report isn’t the only piece of economic research on Covid to come under scrutiny recently in China.
A Chinese investment bank’s report about Covid was deleted shortly after it was published last week, generating a flurry of speculation online that it might have been censored.
Nanjing-based Huatai Securities pointed out in its report on Wednesday that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has caused fewer deaths than flu in several countries and regions, such as Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea and Hong Kong.
Huatai Securities did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
And last month, Anbound Consulting, a Beijing-based economic research firm, published a report on its Weibo and WeChat accounts that was entitled “it’s time for China to change its Covid policy.” That report was removed from both platforms a day later.
Shanghai eases COVID rules and allows 4 million more people out of their homes
Shanghai allowed 4 million more people out of their homes Wednesday as anti-virus controls that shut down China's biggest city eased, while the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast of Chinese economic growth and warned the global flow of industrial goods might be disrupted.To get more news about coronavirus update china, you can visit shine news official website.
A total of almost 12 million people in the city of 25 million are allowed to go outdoors following the first round of easing last week, health official Wu Ganyu said at a news conference. Wu said the virus was "under effective control" for the first time in some parts of the city.
Under the latest changes, more than 4 million people are included in areas where the status shifted from closed to controlled, said Wu. He said some are not allowed to leave their neighborhoods and large gatherings are prohibited.
Meanwhile, the IMF reduced its forecast of Chinese growth this year to 4.4% from 4.8% due to the shutdowns of Shanghai and other industrial centers. That is down by almost half from last year's 8.1% growth and below the ruling Communist Party's 5.5% target.China's case numbers in its latest infection surge are relatively low, but the ruling party is enforcing a "zero-COVID" strategy that has shut down major cities to isolate every case.
On Wednesday, the government reported 19,927 new cases in China's mainland, all but 2,761 of which had no symptoms. Shanghai accounted for 95% of the total, or 18,902 cases, of which 2,495 had symptoms.The Shanghai city health agency reported seven people who had COVID-19 died Tuesday but said the deaths were due to cancer, heart disease and other ailments. All but two were over 60.
Shanghai shut down businesses and confined most of its population to their homes starting March 28 after a spike in infections. That led to complaints about lack of access to supplies of food and medicine. People in Shanghai who test positive but have no symptoms have been ordered into quarantine centers set up in exhibition halls and other public buildings.
Official data this week showed economic growth in the first three months of this year declined compared with the final quarter of 2021.
The lockdowns in China "will likely compound supply disruptions elsewhere" and might add to pressure for inflation to rise, the IMF said in a report.
The ruling party has promised tax refunds and other aid to businesses but is avoiding large-scale stimulus spending. Economists say that strategy will take longer to show results and Beijing might need to spend more or cut interest rates.
Chinese leaders have promised to try to reduce the human and economic cost of anti-disease controls by shifting to a "dynamic clearing" strategy that isolates neighborhoods and other smaller areas instead of whole cities. However, many areas appear to be enforcing more stringent controls after Shanghai officials were criticized for not acting aggressively enough.
Also Wednesday, the Ministry of Agriculture ordered local officials to avoid any measures that might interfere with spring planting by farmers who feed China's 1.4 billion people. The order followed warnings that production of wheat and other crops might be disrupted, which would boost demand for imports and push up already high global prices.
The government reported 26,760 people who tested positive but had no symptoms were released Wednesday from observation. That included 25,411 in Shanghai, where some residents of quarantine centers have complained they are unsanitary.
Other industrial and trading centers including Changchun, Jilin and Shenyang in the northeast, the port of Tianjin east of Beijing and Shenzhen and Guangzhou in the south have closed businesses, imposed travel restrictions or told told residents to stay home.
China's Shanghai Denies Lockdown Rumours As It Nears 1,000 Covid Cases
Authorities in the Chinese city of Shanghai have denied rumours of a city-wide lockdown after a sixth straight increase in daily asymptomatic coronavirus cases pushed its count to record levels despite a campaign of mass testing aimed at stifling the spread.To get more news about shanghai covid, you can visit shine news official website.
The latest outbreak in China's wealthy commercial hub remains tiny by global standards but authorities are proceeding with the testing campaign that has seen many people locked in residential compounds for days as the city implements a national "dynamic clearance" policy aimed at stamping out flare-ups as they arise.
Total local COVID-19 infections in Shanghai approached 1,000 on Tuesday, but the city said late in the day it would stick to its "slicing and gridding" approach and screen its citizens neighbourhood by neighbourhood rather than shut down entirely.
The lockdown rumours triggered panic buying late on Tuesday night, with slots on Alibaba's "Freshhippo" delivery app running out a minute after midnight."Please do not believe and spread rumours," the city government said on its Weibo microblog site.
A health official told a briefing on Wednesday that the city had turned two stadiums into quarantine facilities for mild cases and asymptomatic carriers.A handful of subway stations also suspended operations on Wednesday, the firm managing the transit system said, citing COVID-19 controls.
The municipality reported 977 domestically transmitted asymptomatic infections for Tuesday, data from the National Health Commission (NHC) showed, up from 865 a day earlier.Throughout the city, while some compounds were unsealed, others were shut for several more days to try to eliminate transmission chains. Some residents said they would be sealed off for two weeks after a neighbour tested positive.
One resident posting on Weibo under the username "Zhang Fan's Viewpoint" said authorities might as well lock the city down and put an end to the uncertainty caused by 48-hour lockdowns for testing that are often extended.
"This infinite loop of 48 hours plus 48 hours plus 48 hours is more likely to cause ordinary people to lose control of their emotions, and it would be better to directly notify six days, eight days or even 14 days," the resident said.
Mainland China reported 2,591 locally transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms on Tuesday, versus 2,281 a day earlier, the NHC data showed. The number of new local asymptomatic cases stood at 2,346 compared with 2,313 a day earlier.
The top steelmaking city of Tangshan said late on Tuesday residents who are not essential workers must stay home unless in an emergency or they need to be tested. The city government did not specify when the citywide lockdown would be lifted.
The northeastern city of Shenyang also announced that its 9 million residents would have to go through another three rounds of testing from Thursday through to March 30, after the three rounds already completed.As of March 22, mainland China had reported 137,231 cases with confirmed symptoms, including both local ones and those arriving from outside the mainland. There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll at 4,638.
China battles worst Covid outbreak for two years as cases double in 24 hours
China reported nearly 3,400 daily Covid-19 cases on Sunday, double the previous day, forcing lockdowns on virus hotspots as the country contends with its gravest outbreak in two years.To get more news about coronavirus china update, you can visit shine news official website.
A nationwide surge in cases has seen authorities close schools in Shanghai and lock down several north-eastern cities, as almost 19 provinces battle clusters of the Omicron and Delta variants.
The city of Jilin has been partially locked down, with hundreds of neighbourhoods sealed up, an official announced Sunday, while Yanji, an urban area of nearly 700,000 bordering North Korea, was fully closed off.China, where the virus was first detected in late 2019, has maintained a strict zero-Covid policy enforced by swift lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing when clusters have emerged.
But the latest flare-up, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant and a spike in asymptomatic cases, is challenging that approach.
Zhang Yan, an official with the Jilin provincial health commission, admitted on Sunday that local authorities’ virus response so far had been lacking.
“The emergency response mechanism in some areas is not robust enough, there is insufficient understanding of the characteristics of the Omicron variant … and judgment has been inaccurate,” he said at a government press briefing.Residents of Jilin have completed six rounds of mass testing, local officials said. On Sunday the city reported more than 500 cases of the Omicron variant.
The neighbouring city of Changchun – an industrial base of nine million people – was locked down on Friday.
The smaller cities of Siping and Dunhua, both in Jilin province, were locked down Thursday and Friday, according to official announcements.
The mayor of Jilin and the head of the Changchun health commission were dismissed from their jobs Saturday, state media reported, in a sign of the political imperative placed on local authorities to squash virus clusters.But fatigue with the strict approach has been showing in China, with officials increasingly urging softer and more targeted measures to contain the virus, while economists warn that tough clampdowns are hurting the economy.
As cases have climbed since late February, the response in different parts of the country has been generally softer and more targeted compared to December, when the city of Xi’an and its 13 million people were locked down for two weeks.
In China’s biggest city, Shanghai, authorities have increasingly moved to temporarily lock down individual schools, businesses, restaurants and malls over close-contact fears rather than mass quarantines.Long lines have been seen outside hospitals in the city as people rush to obtain a negative Covid test.
As cases rise, the country’s national health commission announced Friday that they would introduce the use of rapid antigen tests.The kits will now be available online or at pharmacies for clinics and ordinary citizens to buy for “self-testing”, the health commission said.
Although nucleic acid tests will continue to be the main method of testing, the move suggests China may be anticipating that official efforts will not be able to contain the virus.Last week, a top Chinese scientist said the country should aim to coexist with the virus, like other nations, where Omicron has spread like wildfire.
But the government has also made clear that mass lockdowns remain an option.Chinese vice-premier Sun Chunlan, who frequently telegraphs top-level thinking on the pandemic response, on Saturday urged regions to quickly pounce on and clear outbreaks.
Full bus and subway service will be restored, as will basic rail connections with the rest of China, Vice Mayor Zong Ming said Tuesday at a daily news conference on the city’s outbreak.
“The epidemic has been effectively controlled,” she said, adding that the city would start the process of fully restoring work and life Wednesday.
Schools will partially reopen on a voluntary basis for students, and shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores and drug stores will continue to reopen gradually, with no more than 75% of their total capacity allowed. Cinemas and gyms will remain closed.
Officials, who earlier this month had set Wednesday as the target date for reopening, appear ready to accelerate what has been a gradual easing in recent days. A few malls and markets have reopened, and some residents have been given passes allowing them out for a few hours at a time.
In online chat groups, some residents expressed excitement about the prospect of being able to move about freely in the city for the first time since the end of March, while others remained cautious given the slow pace and stop-and-go nature of opening up so far.Workers were taking down some of the barriers that had been erected along sidewalks during the lockdown. A few people walked or biked on the still mostly empty streets. One man was getting his hair cut on the sidewalk, as a worker or volunteer in full protective clothing looked on.
More than half a million people in the city of 25 million won’t be allowed out Wednesday — 190,000 who are still in lockdown areas and another 450,000 who are in control zones because of recent cases.
Shanghai recorded 29 new coronavirus cases Monday, continuing a steady decline from more than 20,000 a day in April. Li Qiang, the top official from China’s ruling Communist Party in Shanghai, was quoted as saying at a meeting Monday that the city had made major achievements in fighting the outbreak through continuous struggle.
The success came at a price. Authorities imposed a suffocating citywide lockdown under China’s zero-tolerance COVID-19 strategy, which aims to snuff out any outbreak with mass testing and isolation at centralized facilities of anyone who is infected.Huge temporary facilities were set up in exhibition centers and other venues to house thousands of people who tested positive. Teams of healthcare and other workers flew in from around the country to help run the massive undertaking.
Factories were shuttered, or were allowed to operate only if workers slept on site to prevent the spread of the virus. Reduced production at semiconductor plants added to the global chip shortage. Containers got backed up at the port of Shanghai because of a shortage of truck drivers to deliver them to their destinations.
Through it all, leaders of the ruling Communist Party repeatedly expressed a determination to stick to its zero-tolerance policy even as other countries have opened their borders and are trying to “live with the virus.” Outside economists widely expect China to fall short of its 5.5% growth target for this year.
However, the latest economic data showed that Chinese manufacturing activity started to rebound in May as the government rolled back some containment measures.Schools will reopen for students in their final two years of high school or third year of middle school, but they can decide whether to attend in person. Other grades remain closed.
Outdoor tourist sites will start reopening Wednesday, with indoor sites set to follow in late June, the Shanghai tourism authority said. Group tours from other provinces will be allowed again when the city has eliminated all high- and medium-risk pandemic zones.
Beijing, the capital, further eased restrictions Tuesday in some districts. The city imposed limited lockdowns, but nothing near a citywide level, in a much smaller outbreak that appears to be on the wane.
Officials said the governor tested positive on Saturday morning and has mild symptoms. Newsom plans to isolate through at least June 2 and until he tests negative. The plan is for him to continue to work remotely during this time.To get more news about china coronavirus update, you can visit shine news official website.
Newsom recently got his second booster shot on May 18 and has also gotten a prescription for the COVID-19 antiviral drug, Paxlovid.The governor’s most recent public appearance was on Friday, when he met with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the San Francisco Botanical Garden to sign an international climate agreement.
The World Health Organization’s top monkeypox expert, Dr. Rosamund Lewis, said she doesn’t expect the hundreds of cases reported to date to turn into another pandemic.However, she acknowledged there are still many unknowns about the disease, including how exactly it’s spreading and whether the suspension of smallpox immunization decades ago may be speeding its transmission.
Lewis said the WHO is investigating questions, including whether monkeypox is spread via sex, in the air and if people without symptoms can transmit the disease, as reported by the Associated Press.She said there’s still time to contain the current problem.
On Monday, Congo reported nine deaths and 465 cases this year. Nigeria reported its first monkeypox death this year and the U.K. reported 71 more cases.Shanghai authorities say they will take major steps Wednesday toward reopening China’s largest city after a two-month COVID-19 lockdown that has throttled the national economy and largely confined millions of people to their homes.
According to the Associated Press, full bus and subway service will be restored, as will basic rail connections with the rest of China. Schools will also partially reopen.Shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores and drug stores will reopen gradually at no more than 75% of their total capacity. Cinemas and gyms will remain closed.
Officials who earlier set June 1 as the target date for reopening appear ready to accelerate what has been a gradual easing in recent days.COVID-19 cases are on the rise yet again, NPR reports. The U.S. is seeing an average of more than 100,000 reported new cases across the country every day, nearly double the rate a month ago and four times higher than this time last year.And the real number of cases is likely much higher than that, according to health officials.
Because many people now rely on at-home tests, “we’re clearly undercounting infections,” White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told reporters at the most recent COVID press briefing.Research in U.S. veterans provides fresh evidence that long COVID-19 can happen even after breakthrough infections following vaccination, as reported by the Associated Press.In the study published on Wednesday, about 1% who had COVID-19 shots had breakthrough infections, and about one-third of that group showed signs of long COVID.
A separate government report found that 1 in 4 adults age 65 and up developed at least one symptom of long COVID up to a year after an initial infection when compared with 1 in 5 younger adults.About two weeks after North Korea acknowledged its first domestic COVID-19 outbreak, it says about 3.3 million people have come down with fever, but only 69 have died.
If they were all virus patients, it would suggest a coronavirus fatality rate of 0.002%, something no other country has achieved, but there are widespread doubts about the credibility of North Korean tallies.
According to the Associated Press, experts say the impoverished country would be more likely to suffer greater deaths because it has few people vaccinated against COVID-19. It also has a sizable portion of undernourished people and lacks facilities to treat critical patients.
Observers say the real reason for underreported fatalities may be to protect leader Kim Jong Un at all costs or to bolster control of its 26 million people.Sacramento County moved from "low" to "medium" in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's community level Thursday as case counts continue to rise in the region.
The county recorded 296 cases per 100,000 people over the past seven days. The limit to stay in the CDC's low tier is 200.Hospitalizations have also risen, with 132 patients in Sacramento County hospitals with COVID-19 as of May 23. That's up from 52 one month ago.Sacramento joins a number of local counties in the medium level, including Placer, Yolo, San Jaoquin and Yuba. Much of the state is also in the medium level, though none have met the threshold for the "high" level yet.