There are many news channels both domestic and foreign who propagate that China is facing a lot of trouble due to spread of corona pandemic in recent times. Most of them do not understand the strategy of China. Reports in Global Times also use the words “outbreak” , “resurgence of covid”, etc., but their concept is totally different from what we or the West understand by those words. Even if a thousand die here we describe “the situation is under control” But the Chinese are following a Zero Tolerance Policy. As per Economic Times some cases were reported in North China, Mongolia and Beijing. On 28 October, 48 new cases and on 29 October, 59 cases of locally transmitted infections were found and the authorities felt it was a “six weeks high” and were on their toes to contain them. They treated it as “recent widespread outbreak” and toughened restrictions on service sector, tourism and catering companies.
“Every time an outbreak occurs, the implementation of the zero-Covid policy will mean economic and social costs. But if we don’t adopt this policy, it will lead to a serious spread of the virus, and the cost will only be higher”, a report from China health authorities says. Defending the Zero-Covid policy, an article in the Global Times said, “if we change course to the European and US way of ‘coexistence with the virus’, China will fall victim to the virus within just a few months, with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of cases a day” and China does not want it under any cost. “The daily death toll could mount to hundreds or even thousands of people. The situation is definitely not something most Chinese are willing to bear,” it added.
They are reacting differently
In order to stop the spread of the virus, Northwest Gansu Province put 83 residential compounds in six cities under closed-off management from October 18 to 31. From Oct. 18 to 31, Gansu reported only 105 local confirmed cases and they called it the “ latest resurgence of the epidemic”.
The province reported few [10] new locally-transmitted confirmed Covid-19 cases. The Northwest Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region expanded the suspension of in-person classes to more areas to contain the spread of Covid-19. Kindergartens, primary and middle schools, vocational schools and off-campus training centres in the regional capital Yinchuan, as well as the cities of Shizuishan, Wuzhong and Zhongwei, have been ordered to suspend in-person classes, according to the regional education department.
A Beijing resident has been stuck for more than three weeks, much of it in quarantine, after authorities discovered a few [18] cases of Covid-19 in a nearby tourist city. Lockdown was imposed. He was among more than 9,000 tourists who became trapped in Ejina Banner, a remote part of China’s Inner Mongolia region that is in the Gobi.
Beijing authorities advised people who went to tourist places where a few cases were identified “not to return for three weeks”. 16 municipalities, few provinces and autonomous regions were asked to restrict activities when 20 cases were identified in Beijing last month. In a cluster of 92 cases, 59 were identified as local transmission and the remining as international transmission. Such is the precision in tracing the cases.
Beijing hosted the historic 6th plenary session of CPC between 8th -11th of November this year. From all over the country 370 delegates participated in the session, The Covid protocol was meticulously followed. Beijing has already started implementing protocols and chalked out the methods of Covid precautions for the Winter Olympics it is hosting in February 2022. Complete vaccination of athletes has been made mandatory and a code of conduct has been prepared and it is learnt that it will be far more strict than in the Tokyo games. The planning and execution are so far sighted even when cases are occurring in single digits.
Regarding vaccination
The country has administered a total of 2.245 billion doses of Covid-19. Some 1.068 billion people have now been inoculated with the required dosages, out of a population of 1.412 billion. China has given complete doses of Covid-19 vaccines to about 75.6% of its population as of October 23, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said on Sunday.
China is giving people, whose last dose was given at least six months ago, a booster shot, with priority groups being essential workers, older people and those with weaker immune systems.
China has largely contained the virus in most areas, and the sporadic local outbreaks are tiny compared with those seen in other countries. However, Mi cautioned on Sunday there is increasing risk that China’s latest outbreak, involving over 100 infections in a week across 11 provincial areas, may spread. Will we ever take this level of care and caution our people?
Doubling the restrictions
As vaccination rates rise in many parts of the world and even countries that previously had strict Covid-containment strategies gingerly ease restrictions, China is doubling down on its zero-tolerance policy. But the head of China’s Center for Disease Control, Gao Fu, recently suggested the country could open up once it is 85% vaccinated – a sign that the government is aware that at least some are eager for that. “Regardless of the time you sacrificed, or how much money you spent, in the face of life, in front of health, those things are not worth mentioning,” said Wang. “For everyone’s health, for society to be more stable, some people have to make sacrifices.”
“Even if only a small percentage of infected people end up in hospitals, that could be a problem in China, with its huge population – and would be especially complicated for a government that has staked its reputation on keeping numbers very low.”
Huang, of the Council on Foreign Relations, summarised the situation as follows: “I think what the government leaders, and scholars and public health officials are worried about (is), even a small opening may lead to bigger outbreaks on a much larger scale.”
China has reported about 5,600 deaths – compared to more than 755,000 in the U.S., a country with less than a quarter the population of China.
W.H.O. Statistics as on 17-11-2021 for Covid-19 Incidence
| S.No | Particulars | Globally | In China |
| 1 | Total number of cases (cumulative) | 25,42,56,432 | 1,27,331 |
| 2 | Total number of deaths (cumulative) | 51,12,461 | 5,697 |
| 3 | Number of cases in last 24 hrs | 5,84,044 | 34 |
| 4 | Number of deaths in last 24 hrs | 7370 | 0 |
Should we conclude that China is in the clutches of Covid-19 disease or should the world learn from the utmost care being taken by the Government of China?
(Dr. S. Jatin Kumar is a practising orthopaedic surgeon for over 30 years. Courtesy: Countercurrents.org.)
