Ratopati English
फाल्गुन २०७८

China sends nearly 40,000 medics to Shanghai in tough fight against Omicron

SHANGHAI, April 6: More than 38,000 medics from 15 provincial-level regions have rushed to China's business hub Shanghai to aid the megacity in its fight against resurging COVID-19. Some 27,000 medics are responsible for sampling and testing work, and another 11,000 work in temporary hospitals, according to the National Health Commission. Shanghai reported 311 confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 16,766 local asymptomatic carriers on Tuesday. Since March 1, about 90,000 people have been infected with the highly contagious Omicron variant, data from the municipal health commission shows. CONCERTED EFFORT The Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station resumed its bustling scene over the past few days, with dozens of trains carrying thousands of medics and tonnes of anti-epidemic supplies pulling in. Between April 3 and 4, a total of 26 charter flights from seven provincial-level regions landed in Shanghai's two major airports. "We were notified on April 2, immediately formed a team of 60 medics and arrived in Shanghai the next day," said Qi Qin with the Tai'an City Central Hospital, east China's Shandong Province. "Two years ago, when Wuhan and our hospital were in the toughest moment, medics from Shanghai were among the first that arrived," said Cheng Fang, head nurse of the intensive care unit in the south area of Jinyintan Hospital, Wuhan City of Hubei Province. "Experts from Shanghai taught us step by step how to strengthen personal protection and treat critically ill patients. Now Shanghai has encountered some difficulties. We are duty-bound and should arrive as soon as possible," Cheng said. Many of the medical teams coming to support Shanghai have rich anti-epidemic experiences. "Among the 28 medical staff from our hospital, some aided the anti-epidemic fight in Wuhan and some had been to Qingdao. They are the most experienced and elite forces," said Teng Tao, associate chief physician of the endocrinology department of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. "I was in Hubei for 58 days in 2020. Back then we knew little about the novel coronavirus, as we learn more about it and constantly improve our anti-epidemic measures, I'm sure we can beat it," said Gao Hongyi, a nurse from Shandong. RESOLUTE, SWIFT MOVES Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan on Saturday urged resolute and swift moves to stem the spread of COVID-19 in Shanghai as quickly as possible. "It is an arduous task and huge challenge to combat the Omicron variant while maintaining the normal operation of core functions in a megacity with a population of 25 million," Sun said. She urged that nucleic acid testing capacity and the organization of mass testing be improved as soon as possible to get a clear picture of the epidemic situation. The megacity is under temporary closed-off management. After the completion of a mass antigen testing on Sunday and citywide nucleic acid testing on Monday, Shanghai has decided on Wednesday to launch a new round of mass testing as a fresh effort to cut off the transmission in communities and contain the latest COVID-19 resurgence. Over 60 venues, including the over 150,000-square meter Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center, have been converted into makeshift hospitals. The National Exhibition and Convention Center covering a total construction area of 1.47 million square meters, is also being turned into a quarantine site. Upon completion, the center with a planned capacity of 40,000 beds is expected to act as the biggest such hospital for those testing positive for COVID-19. In the early hours of Monday, the China Flower Expo park in Chongming District opened as a makeshift hospital with over 2,700 beds and received the first batch of mild cases and asymptomatic carriers. The medical teams are from hospitals in Shanghai and Anhui Province. After registration, the medics will confirm one by one the physical condition of the cases -- whether they have underlying diseases, developed symptoms or have been vaccinated, and make further arrangements and nursing plans. Zhu Minghua, from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, meticulously arranged the treatment of patients. "We must pay close attention to the possible emotions of all the people here," noted Zhu. MUTUAL SUPPORT The arrival of medics from outside Shanghai not only enhances the city's treatment ability but also greatly improves the detection capacity. With the joining of 104 medics from central China's Hunan Province on Sunday, the testing capacity of a lab under Shanghai Biotecan Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. has been significantly boosted. "As our cooperation goes smoother, we hope our daily testing capacity can soon exceed 100,000 tubes," said Wu Shouxin, head of the lab. Zhang Yuetao and her colleagues headed for Shanghai from the neighboring Zhejiang Province at about 2 a.m. Monday. They were responsible for taking nucleic acid samples for 31,120 residents in Songjiang District before noon. The seemingly impossible task was completed an hour ahead of schedule. "Shanghai residents are very cooperative, even the children behave so well," said Zhang. "Zhejiang and Shanghai are members of one family and we should work together to win the war without smoke." Residents in Shanghai flooded social media platforms to express their gratitude. Many burst into tears after seeing medics from across the country come to help. "Thank you so much for coming all the way to help us," said an elderly after having the nucleic acid sample taken at home by medical staff from Wuhan.

पूर्ण विवरण

सम्बन्धित सामग्री

Shanghai braces for more mass COVID testing amid fresh curbs across China

Multiple Chinese cities are adopting fresh COVID-19 curbs, from business halts to lockdowns, to rein in new infections, with the commercial hub of Shanghai bracing for another mass testing campaign after detecting the BA.5 Omicron subvariant

Annapurna Express जेष्ठ २०७९

Vietnam may replace China as factory of the world in near future

BEIJING: Owing to greater opportunities with cheaper prices over land purchasing rights, labor wages, and operational expenses for factories and warehouses, Vietnam may replace China as the factory of the world in near future. As Omicron flare-ups in China’s manufacturing hubs, like Guangdong Province and Shanghai, disrupted supply chains, Vietnams Q1 economic figures appear to […]

Khabarhub English जेष्ठ २०७९

More Chinese cities impose COVID curbs as Shanghai cases rise

​​​​​​​Shanghai reported a record number of symptomatic COVID-19 cases on Saturday and other areas across China imposed restrictions as the country kept up its "dynamic clearance" approach that aims to stamp out the highly transmissible Omicron COVID-19 variant.

The Himalayan Times चैत्र २०७८

Shanghai Covid lockdown extended to entire city

APRIL 6: Initially, there had been separate measures for the eastern and western sides, but the whole city is now subject to indefinite restrictions. Shanghai is the largest single city to be locked down to date. The important financial hub has battled a new wave of coronavirus infections for more than a month. Reported cases have risen to more than 13,000 a day, although the numbers are not high by some international standards. Residents in some areas of the city said the strict policy meant no-one was allowed to leave their housing compounds, not even to collect essential provisions. They reported difficulties in ordering food and water online, with restrictions on when customers are able to place their orders, because of a shortage of supplies and delivery staff. This country's "zero-Covid" system is, at best, struggling to cope. China has done Covid lockdowns before, but not on the scale of its financial mega-city. The logistical challenges required to confine 25 million people to their homes, while keeping them fed, are huge. Social media here is full of angry residents complaining that they can't order food because the delivery system is clogged up. Centralised isolation facilities - many using only camp beds, with no showers or other facilities - are bursting with infected people squashed in next to one another. One of China's few reliable media outlets, Caixin, has reported that close contacts of infected people will be moved to neighbouring provinces. This could potentially involve hundreds of thousands of Shanghai residents. The Chinese government's complete elimination strategy has become something of a mantra, with the government ridiculing other countries for sacrificing their own people on the altar of opening up. Some medical specialists here have tried to get the message through that, for a vaccinated person, catching the Omicron variant of Covid will probably not necessitate going to hospital - that you can simply ride it out at home until you recover. Few people in China seem to be aware of this. Their officials and state media have kept it from them. So the lockdowns continue and it's not only Shanghai closed right now. Jilin City (3.6 million people), Changchun (nine million), Xuzhou (nine million), the steel city of Tangshan (7.7 million) and various other towns and villages are keeping their residents indoors. The strain on people, and the economic cost of it all, must be enormous. The city is testing the limits of China's zero-Covid strategy, amid growing public anger over quarantine rules. The policy sets China apart from most other countries which are trying to live with the virus. But the increased transmissibility and milder nature of the Omicron variant has led to questions over whether the current strategy is sustainable in the long run. "Currently, Shanghai's epidemic prevention and control is at the most difficult and most critical stage," said Wu Qianyu, an official with the municipal health commission. "We must adhere to the general policy of dynamic clearance without hesitation, without wavering." On Monday, Shanghai reported a record 13,086 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases, after a city-wide testing programme took samples from more than 25 million people in 24 hours. At least 38,000 people have been deployed to Shanghai from other regions, in what state media have said is the biggest nationwide medical operation since the shutdown of Wuhan in early 2020. With inputs from BBC

Ratopati English फाल्गुन २०७८

Why China is locking down its cities?

China's zero-Covid policy has been among the strictest approaches to tackling the pandemic anywhere in the world. But a recent surge in infections is forcing it to reconsider how it deals with the pandemic. How serious is the current wave? The latest jump in daily cases, widely spread across the country, has been driven largely by the Omicron variant. Tens of millions of people in China, including the entire north-eastern province of Jilin, and the tech-hub city Shenzhen in the south, have been ordered into lockdown. Shanghai, China's largest city, has become the latest city to join the list after battling the new wave for nearly a month. Makeshift hospitals and quarantine centres have been set up across the country. In the week prior to 24 March, there were just over 14,000 new cases in the whole of mainland China. In the UK over a similar period, there were over 610,000 new infections. How is China's policy changing? As more infections are detected across the country, China's strict zero-Covid strategy is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. However, most of its principal elements remain in place: -Travel to and from China is strictly limited, and there are restrictions on internal movement -Travellers from abroad with permission to enter China are screened and sent to government-designated hotels for a mandatory quarantine of at least two weeks, followed by a further period of monitoring -Regular community testing programmes are carried out and if infections are detected, residents can be evicted and sent to quarantine facilities (along with targeted area lockdowns) -All non-essential businesses have been shut, apart from food shops and some other essential suppliers -Schools are closed and public transport is suspended, with almost all vehicle movement banned -As China's healthcare system is put under increasing strain, some regulations have been relaxed: -People with mild symptoms no longer need to attend designated hospitals, but they still need to isolate at centralised facilities -Quarantine-period rules have been reduced -City-wide testing is no longer being carried out - replaced by local community testing -Self-testing kits are to be made available in stores across the country and online, but those who test positive will need to take PCR tests How successful has China's zero-Covid policy been? China has had remarkable success containing the pandemic prior to the current outbreak. Since the end of 2019, it has reported just over 4,600 deaths (according to Our World in Data). In the United States, more than 970,000 have died and in the UK, a little over 160,000. That's around three deaths per million people in mainland China, compared with 2,922 in the US and 2,402 in the UK. Reported infections in China have also been very low throughout the pandemic. Concerns have been expressed about the accuracy of the official data, but it seems clear that both infection and death rates have been low when compared with other countries. About 88% of the population is now fully vaccinated. Despite this, China is almost alone in adhering to strict zero-Covid policies. Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, relaxed their strict policies in the latter part of 2021 as vaccination rates improved. Cases did then surge in those three countries, largely as a result of the spread of the Delta and Omicron variants of coronavirus - but have remained relatively low in comparison with countries across Europe and in the United States.

Ratopati English फाल्गुन २०७८

China announces largest city-wide lockdown

MARCH 28: The city of Shanghai will be locked down in two stages over nine days while authorities carry out Covid-19 testing. The important financial hub has battled a new wave of infections for nearly a month, although case numbers are not high by some international standards. Authorities had so far resisted locking down the city of some 25 million people to avoid destabilising the economy. But after Shanghai recorded its highest daily number of cases on Saturday since the early days of the pandemic, authorities appear to have changed course. The lockdown will happen in two stages, with the eastern side of the city under restrictions from Monday until 1 April, and the western side from 1-5 April. Public transport will be suspended and firms and factories must halt operations or work remotely, authorities said. The city government published the instructions on its WeChat account, asking the public "to support, understand and cooperate with the city's epidemic prevention and control work". Other lockdowns during the pandemic have affected entire Chinese provinces, though people could often still travel within those regions. But Shanghai, due to its high population density, is the largest single city to be locked down to date. It is China's commercial capital and by some calculations the biggest city in the country - but is now one of the worst-hit areas as China fights to contain a resurgence of the virus with Omicron, leading to a spike in new cases. Officials had until now said the eastern Chinese port and financial hub must keep running for the good of the economy. The staggered approach to this lockdown means half the city will remain functioning at a time. Millions of residents in other Chinese cities have been subjected to citywide lockdowns, often after a relatively small number of Covid cases. In a city that's been on its knees for two weeks, parts of it reduced to something like a ghost town, the streets are now suddenly busy with panic shoppers. I've been out and seen queues stretching out of shop doors as people stock up before the lockdown starts early on Monday. The subway station at the end of my road, newly opened just a few months ago, will be shut on Monday. Public transport will stop and all residents will be subject to mass city-wide Covid testing. Almost 25 million people will be affected; the eastern side of the city first, then at the end of next week the western side. Wuhan was sealed off at the very outset of this pandemic. Before Christmas it was Xi'an. Now China's commercial and financial capital is being shut. Just a few days ago officials here said Shanghai was too big and too important to lock down. The question now on many residents' lips will be whether nine days is enough. Challenge to zero-Covid The recent surge in cases in China, although small compared to some countries, is a significant challenge to China's "zero-Covid" strategy, which uses swift lockdowns and aggressive restrictions to contain any outbreak. The policy sets China apart from most other countries which are trying to live with the virus. But the increased transmissibility and milder nature of the Omicron variant has led to questions over whether the current strategy is sustainable in the long run. Some Shanghai residents have complained about the seemingly endless cycles of testing, suggesting that the cost of zero-Covid had become too high. China's national health commission reported more than 4,500 new domestically transmitted cases on Sunday.

Ratopati English फाल्गुन २०७८

Shanghai's Disney resort shut amid record daily local COVID infections

China's financial hub of Shanghai reported on Monday a record daily surge in local COVID-19 infections as authorities scrambled to test residents and rein in the Omicron variant, while closing its Disney DIS.N resort until further notice.

The Himalayan Times फाल्गुन २०७८

Businesses shut as officials widen COVID-19 lockdowns in China

MARCH 15: Tens of millions of people across the country face restrictions, including the entire Jilin province and technology hub Shenzhen, as authorities report record numbers of cases. Toyota, Volkswagen and Apple supplier Foxconn are among the firms affected. The lockdowns have raised concerns that crucial supply chains may be disrupted. China on Tuesday reported a record high of more than 5,000 cases, most of it in Jilin. All 24 million residents of the north-eastern province were placed under quarantine orders on Monday. It is the first time China has restricted an entire province since the Wuhan and Hebei lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic. Jilin residents have been banned from moving around, and anyone wanting to leave the province must apply for police permission. It came a day after a five-day lockdown was placed on the 12.5 million residents of the southern city of Shenzhen, with all buses and subway services suspended. On Tuesday authorities in Langfang city which borders the capital Beijing, as well as Dongguan in the southern province of Guangdong, also imposed immediate lockdowns. Businesses in many of the affected regions have been told to close or have their employees work from home, unless they supplied essential services like food, utilities or other necessities. Foxconn, which manufactures iPhones for Apple, stopped its operations in Shenzhen on Monday, saying the date of resumption would "be advised by the local government". But it has several production sites in China and told the BBC it had "adjusted the production line to minimise the potential impact". Its plant in Zhengzhou - the world's largest iPhone factory - remains open, as the city was not hit by the restrictions. Toyota, which shut its factory in Changchun city in Jilin province, did not give a timeline for when business would resume. The Japanese carmaker told the BBC that the move was made to consider the "impact of supplier operation", and the "safety and security of employees and related parties". German carmaker Volkswagen also shuttered operations in Changchun, saying production of Volkswagen and Audi cars and their components were "affected", but that it hoped to reopen its factory on Thursday. On Tuesday the Shanghai Composite lost 5% and the Hang Seng index, where several Chinese technology giants are listed, fell over 6%. Analysts believe that firms would be able to manage the disruptions. "Such lockdowns have happened before, and (cities) have re-opened within a short period of time once the number of Covid cases were within control," Yeang Cheng Ling, senior investment strategist at Singapore's DBS Bank, told the BBC. UBS analyst Grace Chen said Shenzhen was not a "major" production site for suppliers, but it would be worrying if the lockdowns extended to Shanghai and surrounding areas as the region is a key manufacturing hub for notebooks, servers, and smart devices. It feels like China has gone backwards. Two years backwards. To the early days of the outbreak that first emerged here. Drastic measures are being imposed - again - on a large scale, to try to contain the virus. An entire province has been sealed off. The lockdown of Jilin is similar in so many ways to Hubei in early 2020; the area of China where it all began. Shenzhen, the globally important tech hub (where your iPad was most likely made) is also a city in lockdown. Shanghai - where I am writing this - home to 24 million people, is a nervous place. All schools are closed, children are learning online, increasingly people are working from home. Some compounds where people live are enforcing strict rules on who can come in. Deliveries are being sprayed with disinfectant again at the gates. It's all part of the on-going effort to maintain/retain/regain China's "dynamic zero-Covid" strategy. A goal that has been boosted by the mass roll-out of China's homemade vaccines. A goal that has been helped hugely by effectively shutting China's borders. But now a goal that is being significantly undermined by the Omicron variant. China has seen relatively fewer cases of Covid due to its strict zero-Covid policy, where it resorts to rapid lockdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions whenever clusters have emerged. However the rapid transmissibility of the Omicron variant has made sticking to that approach increasingly challenging. Since the start of the year, China has reported more domestically transmitted cases than in the entire 2021. Top Chinese infectious disease expert Zhang Wenhong has called the recent outbreaks "the most difficult period in the last two years of battling Covid" and that they were still in "the early stage of an exponential rise", in an online post widely circulated on social media. But he added that while it was necessary for China to maintain its zero Covid strategy to control the outbreaks for now, "this does not necessarily mean we will continue implementing the strategy of lockdowns and mass testing forever".

Ratopati English फाल्गुन २०७८

China records more local COVID cases this year than in whole of 2021

China has reported more local symptomatic COVID-19 cases so far this year than it recorded in all of 2021, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant triggers outbreaks from Shanghai to Shenzhen.

The Himalayan Times फाल्गुन २०७८

China's daily local COVID cases top 1,000 as Omicron spreads

Mainland China reported over 1,000 new COVID-19 infections in dozens of cities, the highest daily count in about two years, with the Omicron variant forcing a northeastern city to go under lockdown and the financial hub Shanghai to close schools.

The Himalayan Times माघ २०७८

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