Covid-19 in China

[Randy W]

Mainland China to open all borders with Hong Kong and Macau, travel tours to resume 

Mainland China will fully reopen all of its borders with Hong Kong and Macau from February 6, 2023.

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/688178533010012/

 

 

Mainland China to open all borders with Hong Kong and Macau, travel tours to resume

Mainland China will fully reopen all of its borders with Hong Kong and Macau from February 6, 2023.

Posted by South China Morning Post on Friday, February 3, 2023

 

[Randy W]

“We were all frightened at first. The media claimed that COVID-19 is merely a bad cold but no. The mortality rate in the last one or two months is equal to the total number in three or four years in our department...But we made it.”

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/posts/pfbid0wdwReetNqdPWMNz78xrgoWHRiaysZV2eRfexxbxKHrT72xkv8H8uqro1nyxtNkcTl

 

‘It’s Finally Over,’ Say Doctors in China as COVID Cases Ebb
While the government announced late in January that the current wave had ended, hospitals say operations are slowly returning to normal.

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Late in January, China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that the current COVID-19 epidemic wave had ended. The report compiled surveillance data from Dec. 9 to Jan. 23 and was published on the Chinese CDC Weekly website. 

In hospitals, doctors Sixth Tone spoke with confirmed that cases had decreased drastically compared to late December and early January and that hospital operations were slowly returning to normal. 

 . . .

He clearly remembers the day it all started — Dec. 16. That was when they detected the first infection in his cardiology ward. Soon, more emerged and it spread so fast that he recalls feeling shocked. 

The ward was initially designed to accommodate 50 patients but was forced to take in more than 70. Patients were accompanied by families, which crowded the room even more. There was barely enough space for Dr. Song to walk around and complete his routine checks on patients.

During the worst spell, only three people worked in Dr. Song’s department, as other colleagues were sent to help out in other departments. Some were even given short breaks to recover from COVID-19. 

At one point, Dr. Song had over 30 operations queued up in a single week. Before the pandemic, he says, he was often required only for about a dozen surgeries. 

“A patient was sent in, white lung. Another one sent in, white lung again,” recalls Dr. Song, referring to patients with respiratory complications. “I was diagnosed with COVID-19 around New Year’s Day. X-rays showed that I had the white lung as well. I had a fever but had to continue doing surgeries. Who would do it if I didn’t?”

 

 

 

[Randy W]

China's adjustment of its COVID-19 pandemic response will not only speed up its own economic recovery, but also boost global economic growth, said a report issued by Goldman Sachs Research on Friday.
"Our economists now forecast China's GDP (gross domestic product) to grow by 6.5 percent in 2023 on a Q4/Q4 basis," up from the previous forecast of 5.5 percent made at the end of last November, according to the report.
On top of that, global GDP could be raised by 1 percent by the end of 2023 due to China's adjustment, it said.
"The global growth backdrop has brightened," Goldman economists Joseph Briggs and Devesh Kodnani were quoted as saying by the report. The two economists have viewed "the more rapid pace of China's reopening along with a waning drag from global financial conditions and lower European gas prices" as good news for the world.

from China Pictorial on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/ChinaPic/posts/pfbid0ztmLG1P7MDT3pcoGYdZ5RywUBrss2oPmjndr7H6wmZb1inLUM7yX2pkdTQJfmG7Tl

 

 

[Randy W]

On 8/20/2021 at 1:46 PM, Randy W said:

My own impression is that Wuhan was the epicenter of the global pandemic. Research into the origin of COVID will get nowhere without China's cooperation.

When the WHO director general privately 'lost patience' with China
How Chinese pressure on coronavirus origins probe shocked the WHO — and led its director to push back

This is from Yahoo News, which references this article from the WaPo

How Chinese pressure on coronavirus origins probe shocked the WHO — and led its director to push back

 

WHO to ‘push until we get the answer’ on COVID origins
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says it is ‘crucial’ to know how the coronavirus pandemic started.

from Al Jazeera

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An article on the Nature website on Tuesday said the WHO had abandoned the search after it faced a lack of cooperation from China, where the outbreak began in late 2019.

“We need to continue to push until we get the answer,” agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, referring to the search for the origins of the virus.

“Knowing how this pandemic started is very, very important and very crucial,” he said.

He said he had recently sent a letter to a top official in China “asking for cooperation, because we need cooperation and transparency in the information … in order to know how this started”.

 

the article in Nature

WHO abandons plans for crucial second phase of COVID-origins investigation
Sensitive studies in China were intended to pinpoint the source of the pandemic virus.

An expert team convened by the World Health Organization met Chinese researchers in Wuhan in February 2020 to review when and how SARS-CoV-2 might have emerged.Credit: Top Photo Corporation/Shutterstock

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But two years since that high-profile trip, the WHO has abandoned its phase-two plans. “There is no phase two,” Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist at the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, told Nature. The WHO planned for work to be done in phases, she said, but “that plan has changed”. “The politics across the world of this really hampered progress on understanding the origins,” she said.

Researchers are undertaking some work to pin down a timeline of the virus’s initial spread. This includes efforts to trap bats in regions bordering China in search of viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2; experimental studies to help narrow down which animals are susceptible to the virus and could be hosts; and testing of archived wastewater and blood samples collected around the world in late 2019 and early 2020. But researchers say that too much time has passed to gather some of the data needed to pinpoint where the virus originated.

 . . .

Gerald Keusch, associate director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory Institute at Boston University in Massachusetts, says the origins investigation was “poorly handled by the global community. It was poorly handled by China. It was poorly handled by the WHO.” The WHO should have been relentless in creating a positive working relationship with the Chinese authorities, says Keusch; if it was being stonewalled, it should have been honest about that.

Van Kerkhove says that the WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has continued to engage directly with Chinese government officials to encourage China to be more open and to share data. And WHO staff have reached out to the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing to try to establish collaborations. “We really, really want to be able to work with our colleagues there,” says Van Kerkhove. “It’s really a deep frustration.”

The Chinese ministry of foreign affairs did not respond to Nature’s e-mailed requests for comment on why the phase-two studies have stalled.

 

 

[Randy W]

What does China plan to do with mountain of personal health code data amassed during zero-Covid?

• Guangdong says it has deleted all all Covid-related data collected from users of provincial health code app
• But some other regions plan to hang on to data to bolster digital governance initiatives

from the SCMP

Workers remove Covid-19 health code posters from Xining Railway Station in Qinghai province on December 8. Photo: CNS
 

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The deletion of the data held in Guangdong was completed on Thursday, but other provinces’ approach to the same issue remains unclear, to the consternation of legal experts and members of the public.

Some regions, including Beijing, Shanghai and southwestern China’s Guizhou province, have said they will integrate their health codes with government platforms to aid in the provision of other public services, but experts say there is an insufficient legal basis for such moves.

Shanghai’s big data centre said in mid-December that there were no plans to make the local health code defunct because “its applications are not limited to pandemic prevention and control, but also relate to other scenarios in the city’s public administration and services”.

Beijing announced in late December that the capital’s health code functions had been integrated into its government affairs platform, adding that data related to disease control work would be handled with “strict security management and timely removal”, and Guizhou said that same month that the local health code had been merged with the provincial government service platform to continue services related to healthcare and communities.

 

 

[Randy W]

China’s CCP warns Elon Musk against sharing Wuhan lab leak report

• Chinese state-run media warned Tesla CEO Elon Musk that he was risking his relationship with China after he retweeted about the U.S. government’s “low-confidence” assessment that the Covid pandemic originated in a Wuhan laboratory.
• The warning comes ahead of a congressional hearing on China, and after the downing of a Chinese espionage balloon heightened tensions between Beijing and the U.S.

from CNBC

 

#China Communist Party paper warns @elonmusk against pushing #COVID19 lab leak theory. @globaltimesnews posts on social media “Elon Musk, are you breaking the pot of China?” (“Breaking the pot after eating” is Chinese “biting the hand that feeds you.”) https://t.co/iWmMZAOiGt pic.twitter.com/nN1lhMDlYq

— Eunice Yoon (@onlyyoontv) February 28, 2023

 

[Randy W]

Bordering on Recovery: Ruili, the Jade Town on the China-Myanmar Frontier
Since February, Sixth Tone’s video team has been traveling to border towns all over China, documenting the complex legacy of three years of “zero-COVID” restrictions. Ruili, a city straddling China’s southwestern border with Myanmar, is the first stop in this series.

Before the pandemic, Ruili rose to prosperity as a center for the jade trade. But the city faced some of China’s strictest anti-COVID measures, losing a large number of its population as a result.

Now, the border has finally reopened. But as Sixth Tone’s Lü Xiao, Li Pasha and Wu Huiyuan observe, economic revival didn’t take place overnight.

Read more: http://ow.ly/8iqF50NiJXX

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/posts/pfbid0uUhBHdZyJc2QbjWfUtTRTHueKcDSHykzpxyBBmef3qYzeC7DUTKsvVYtAKUPhABsl

 

After 3 Years of Lockdowns, a Chinese Border City Struggles to Rebuild
Ruili faced some of China’s strictest virus-control measures during the height of the pandemic. Now, local people are gradually picking up the pieces.

This is the third article in “Recovery” — a series of reports on how communities across China are attempting to move on from three years of strict pandemic-control measures. The first two stories in the series can be read here and here.

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As China moves on from three years of strict pandemic controls, life is gradually returning to normal in Ruili — a remote city sitting on China’s southwestern border with Myanmar. But the recovery is likely to be slower here than in other parts of the country.

Before the pandemic, Ruili’s prosperity was built on its status as the main gateway between China and Myanmar. Billions of dollars of fei cui — a variety of green jade that is highly prized in China — flowed from Myanmar’s mines into the Chinese market each year, with much of it channeled through Ruili.

After COVID hit, however, the city’s frontier location became a liability. With China wary of infections spreading across the border, Ruili faced a string of weekslong lockdowns. From early 2021, the border was sealed entirely, and surrounding neighborhoods were evacuated. Undocumented migrants from Myanmar were rounded up and forced to return home.

The jade trade was brought to a standstill. Jade could not cross the border, and Ruili’s markets shut down. Large numbers of businesses folded. By 2022, data from Ruili’s mass COVID testing program suggested that around 200,000 people had left the city — nearly half of its pre-pandemic population.

Now, the city is finally reopening. In December 2022, China abandoned its virus-suppression strategy, bringing an end to three years of lockdowns and domestic travel restrictions. The China-Myanmar border began operating again the following month.

 . . .

“It has come back a lot,” he says. “Now cars and people are circulating again, and many people who left to work in Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Shanghai are coming back. The market is back on, everything is open.”

 

Bordering on Recovery: Ruili, the Jade Town on the China-Myanmar Frontier

Since February, Sixth Tone’s video team has been traveling to border towns all over China, documenting the complex legacy of three years of “zero-COVID” restrictions. Ruili, a city straddling China’s southwestern border with Myanmar, is the first stop in this series. Before the pandemic, Ruili rose to prosperity as a center for the jade trade. But the city faced some of China’s strictest anti-COVID measures, losing a large number of its population as a result. Now, the border has finally reopened. But as Sixth Tone’s Lü Xiao, Li Pasha and Wu Huiyuan observe, economic revival didn’t take place overnight. Read more: http://ow.ly/3tL650Nizb2

Posted by Sixth Tone on Tuesday, March 14, 2023

 

Edited March 15, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Why Did China Just Kill Millions?

China Uncensored
China's offramp to zero Covid was about as smooth as a plane landing on its nose. There were seemingly no policies or preparations made to move from almost constant lockdowns to no Covid restrictions at all, and millions paid for it with their lives. Watch this episode of China Uncensored for what detailed plans officials were given to avoid this disaster, why China isn't reporting its Covid death toll, and how the CCP used protests as an excuse to lift zero Covid. 

Edited April 9, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

The head of the WHO has pressed China to share its information about the origins of COVID https://aje.io/df457y

from Al Jazeera English on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera/photos/a.10150243828793690/10161561918663690

 

WHO chief urges China to share information on COVID origins
Global health agency scientists say a new Chinese study published this week offered some ‘clues’ on origins but no answers.

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WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday the global health body had asked China to cooperate with it to help trace the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Without full access to the information that China has, you cannot say this or that,” said Tedros Adhanom, in response to a question about the origin of the virus.

“All hypotheses are on the table. That’s WHO’s position and that’s why we have been asking China to be cooperative on this,” he added.

“If they would do that then we will know what happened or how it started.”

 . . .

Last month, data from the early days of the outbreak was briefly uploaded by Chinese scientists to an international database.

It included genetic sequences found in more than 1,000 environmental and animal samples taken in January 2020 at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan.

The data showed that DNA from multiple animal species – including raccoon dogs – was present in environmental samples that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, suggesting that they were “the most likely conduits” of the disease, according to a team of international researchers.

However, in a non-peer-reviewed study published by the Nature journal this week, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention scientists have disputed the international team’s findings.

They said the samples provided no proof the animals were actually infected. They were also taken a month after human-to-human transmission first occurred at the market, so even if they were COVID-positive, the animals could have caught the virus from humans.

WHO’s Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for COVID-19, said the latest Chinese information offered some “clues” on origins but no answers. She said the WHO was working with scientists to find out more about the earliest cases from 2019 such as the whereabouts of those infected.

She added the health agency still did not know whether some of the research required had been undertaken in China.

 

 

[Randy W]

Covid origins: Chinese scientists publish long-awaited data

from the BBC

Huanan Seafood Market has been linked to the first cases of Covid-19

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But this is the first peer-reviewed study of biological evidence gathered from the market back in 2020.

By linking the virus with animals sold in the market, it could open new lines of inquiry into how the outbreak began.

The research reveals swabs that tested positive for the virus also contained genetic material from wild animals.

Some scientists say this is further evidence that the disease was initially transmitted from an infected animal to a human.

But others have urged caution in interpreting the findings and it remains unclear why it took three years for the genetic content of the samples to be made public.

Another theory has centred on the suggestion that the virus accidentally leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan.

No definitive proof

The Chinese research team posted an early version of their study online back in February 2022, but they did not publish the full genetic information that was contained in the samples gathered from the market.

In March this year, another international group of researchers shared their own assessment of what those crucial market swabs had revealed, after spotting that the genetic sequences had been posted on a scientific data-sharing website.

This new analysis, which has been validated by other scientists before being published in the journal Nature, includes more important detail about the content of those samples, which were collected from stalls, surfaces, cages and machinery inside the market.

 

 

[Randy W]

Some interesting thoughts from Lei's Real Talk. Although I'm usually not real confident in her forward looking prognostications, I'm pretty sure she is right on about no more lock downs.

Most of the video is a discussion of the debt issues with some good information there.

Debt & cost of Zero-COVID prevent Beijing from locking down for the new wave of COVID

Chinese citizens are talking about getting COVID again, and medical experts are warning about another wave in China. But Beijing will not lock down again because it doesn’t have the money to do so. The Chinese government has grown its debt by 60% during the 3-year “zero covid” and is seriously in debt. 
- Is there another wave of COVID in China?
- Will Beijing lock down China again?
- How much did Zero COVID cost?
- How bad is the Chinese government’s debt problem?

Edited April 27, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

PCR tests are no longer requirerd to enter China as of April 29 - see CFL topic at this link:

http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/50279-can-you-get-into-china/page/4/#comment-650962

 

[Randy W]

Coronavirus: new Chinese vaccines on the way, but so are more waves of Covid, experts say

• Health authorities are preparing to roll out new line-up of home-grown vaccines to battle Omicron subvariants
• China urged to brace for a possible second wave of Covid infections next winter, disease expert says

from the SCMP

As immunity wanes in China, public health experts are promising new vaccines to better target persistent Omicron subvariants. Photo: AFP
 

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China will soon have two new vaccines to target the most dominant strains of Covid-19 in the country, according to Zhong Nanshan, one of the nation’s top respiratory disease experts.

Zhong told the Greater Bay Area Science Forum in Guangzhou on Monday that the vaccines targeting Omicron subvariants had received preliminary approval and were expected to be available soon.

As many as four other new vaccines were also expected to be approved soon, but he did not give further details about them or when they would be launched.

 

 

 

[Randy W]

Guangzhou tightens Covid-19 controls
Southern China’s Guangdong province has ramped up infection-control measures after detecting more Covid-19 cases in the past two weeks.

Read more: https://sc.mp/3mry

from the SCMP on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/184467703679673/

 

 

Guangzhou tightens Covid-19 controls

Southern China’s Guangdong province has ramped up infection-control measures after detecting more Covid-19 cases in the past two weeks. Read more: https://sc.mp/3mry

Posted by South China Morning Post on Monday, June 7, 2021

 

Guangzhou tightens Covid-19 controls as mass tests expose more cases

• Economic powerhouse reports nine more infections, including six in one family
• Authorities screen residents in four districts and upgrade risk level in several zones

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Since the outbreak started on May 21, the province has detected more than 100 cases, including infections in the neighbouring cities of Foshan and Maoming.

 . . .

Since May 26, the city has tested 16 million people in 11 districts, finding 33 cases of infection.

 

 

[Randy W]

China drops cremation data from quarterly report, raising questions about key Covid death indicator

• Ministry of Civil Affairs scraps figure from delayed statistics release, and provinces also appear to be withholding the information
• The omission makes it harder to understand impact of last winter’s Covid-19 wave, which swept the nation after Beijing’s U-turn on pandemic measures

from the SCMP

A man carries a box containing cremated ashes near a funeral house in Wuhan, China during the early days of the coronavirus outbreak in April 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE
 

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China did not release data on the number of cremation services held in the fourth quarter of 2022, blocking from public view a key indicator of death during the country’s first nationwide Covid-19 wave last winter.

On the national level, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has scrapped the figure from its quarterly release of national civil affairs data, which was published on June 9.

This defied the ministry’s long-time practice, dating back to 2007, of releasing cremation numbers on a quarterly basis.

Before 2020, fourth-quarter cremation data was typically released in the first two months of the following year, along with other civil affairs data such as social welfare and marriage registrations.