Health officials cease recording asymptomatic cases as shortages of medical supplies and testing kits reported in wake of sudden end to strict Covid policy
China
of strict pandemic measures. Authorities have urged people not to seek emergency healthcare unless necessary, and announced the rollout of second boosters to elderly and vulnerable people.last week, rolling back measures including travel restrictions and lockdowns. Health authorities also ended the mass testing drives and compulsory regular testing which were pillars of the policy. As a result, official daily reports have become an increasingly inaccurate measure of the outbreak.
Vice-premier Sun Chunlan earlier said Beijing’s new infections were “rapidly growing”, according to state media. Anecdotally, residents are describing many friends, families, and co-workers falling ill with Covid, with one telling the Guardian it had “ripped through” the city. Employees at businesses, schools and embassies have described huge numbers of colleagues being home sick with the virus, or caring for family members. James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based lawyer, said on Twitter that 90% of people from his Beijing office had Covid.
Residents have also complained of long lines at pharmacies and cold medication selling out. Agence France-Presse reported a black market had emerged for rapid tests and some medications being sold at inflated prices by “dealers” whose contacts are being shared on social media groups. For almost three years China’s government used mass testing, lockdowns, strict quarantine and travel restrictions in response to any outbreak. The policy successfully kept the virus at bay for more than two years, and was stridently defended by officials as the best response, even as it was challenged by the more transmissible variants.
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