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The main cities of the Asian nation, such as Beijing or Shenzhen, stopped carrying out systematic tests on all citizens in some public places and means of transport after the central government considered that “the conditions are met”. The measure comes after thousands of citizens showed their weariness with numerous demonstrations against the controversial health policy known as ‘Covid zero’.
Sanitary measures against Covid-19 seem to be relaxing in the main Chinese cities after several days of controversy due to the numerous demonstrations by citizens against the strict ‘Covid zero’ policy defended by the Xi Jinping government. Urban centers such as Beijing, the capital, Canton or Shenzeng have announced that they will stop testing for this disease in means of transport or some public spaces, such as parks.
The decision is made because, according to the authorities, “the conditions are in place” to review the ‘zero Covid’ policy applied in recent weeks due to the rise in infections, although it coincides at a time when the peak of infection is still near. new infections in this Asian nation.
The new order is a relief for the millions of people in China who were forced to take several weekly tests for the disease to be able to go to their workplaces or carry out normal daily activities, such as going to supermarkets or having moments of leisure. However, this announcement is still a long way from being a full opening.
Many businesses still require a test even though people are vaccinated, and quarantine measures for everyone coming into the country, with the disease, or in contact with someone with the disease are still extremely strict.
The case of China contrasts with the rest of the world. While most countries on the planet are living with the virus thanks to vaccination and, in most of them, restrictions are minor or practically non-existent, Xi Jinping’s government continues to view the pandemic as a threat to its health system and, especially, for the elderly.
The announcement of the easing of the rules was welcomed by the World Health Organization, which supports nations lifting restrictions in the face of what appears to be the final phase of the pandemic.
The ‘zero Covid’ policy triggered the biggest protests seen in decades
The decision to ease the harsh restrictions in these cities comes days after China experienced its biggest protests in decades. This nation is not used to suffering protests because for decades any type of opposition or dissent has been repressed and because citizens live under strict technological control by the authorities that makes it very difficult for them to organize to protest. However, that did not stop cities like Beijing or Shanghai from experiencing scenes of tension since last weekend.
The trigger for all this was a fire at an apartment building in the northwestern city of Urumqi, which killed at least 10 people. A cause that made thousands of people leave the streets on November 25 when they understood that these deaths had occurred because of the confinements decreed throughout the country.
Questions circulated online about whether firefighters or victims trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other antivirus controls. Authorities denied this, but the deaths became a focus of public frustration.
During the protests, in addition to calling for the relaxation of the measures, some protesters demanded the resignation of President Xi Jinping, something unusual that shows the high degree of frustration with which a large part of the citizenry lives due to these measures.
Xi, during a meeting with European Union officials in Beijing on Thursday, blamed the mass protests on young people frustrated by years of pandemic. During the days following the protests, the authorities have been seen through social networks checking the mobile phones of citizens to track participation in these demonstrations and punish those who have done so.
Some sectors of the Chinese Communist Party have begun to blame “foreign interference” for these protests and have promised reprisals for the organizers, although the truth is that the protests arose spontaneously from a vigil organized in a cultural neighborhood from the city of Shanghai.
In the last 24 hours, the government reported 33,018 household infections in the last 24 hours, of which 29,085 had no symptoms. Extremely low figures for a country that has a population of 1.4 billion inhabitants, but which have set records for infections in this nation since the start of the pandemic in January 2020. The causes of these increases appear to be the Omicron variant, which is already has become the majority.
Experts quoted by news agencies such as AP or Reuters believe that the total relaxation of the measures could not take place until well into 2024, depending on the success of the vaccination campaign for older adults.
With Reuters and AP
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