Beijing (EFE).- China registered a new drop in covid-19 infectionswith 13,811 new cases officially notified the day before, of which 10,729 are asymptomatic, the National Health Commission reported today, at a time when the country has begun to relax its strict zero-covid policy.
Many cities have closed in recent days a good percentage of the cabins of PCR sampling and reduced the frequency with which they test the population, which could translate into finding a lower number of positives.
Thus, between 3,082 symptomatic casesthe vast majority (3,588) were caused by local transmission within the country’s borders, with special incidence in areas such as Canton (southeast, 1,115) and beijing (924).
These areas, along with the province of chongqingalso concentrated the 10,729 asymptomatic cases registered in the country, although the health authorities do not include them in their balance of confirmed cases unless they begin to show symptoms of the disease.
According to the institution’s accounts, since the start of the pandemic the country has registered a total of 360,734 infections – a figure that excludes asymptomatic people – and 5,235 deaths.
In recent days, the official press has begun to minimize the risk of the omicron variant through numerous articles and interviews with experts, a turn of argument that accompanies the relaxation of some of the strictest measures of the ‘zero’ policy. covid’, in force for almost three years.
The authorities have already stated that the “conditions” are in place for the country to “adjust” its measures in this “new situation” in which the virus causes fewer deaths, although they have also announced a plan to speed up vaccination of the elderly, one of the most vulnerable groups but at the same time more reluctant to be inoculated.
Likewise, the Chinese Executive announced this week that it will allow those infected with asymptomatic or mild symptoms to isolate themselves in their homes – until now, transfer to a quarantine center was mandatory – and indicated that it will no longer be necessary to have a negative covid test to enter in most places and establishments, with the exception of hospitals or schools.
The changes came after the weariness of the restrictions crystallized in protests in various parts of the country after the death of ten people in an apparently confined building in Urumqi (northwest), with slogans such as “I don’t want PCR, I want to eat” or “give me back my freedom”.
The Government defends that it has saved millions of lives through the ‘zero covid’, which consists of the isolation of all those infected and their close contacts, strict border controls, partial or total confinement in places where cases are detected and constant PCR tests to the urban population.
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