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In China, after three weeks of silence, Chinese President Xi Jinping calls for “building a retaining wall” against the virus and “protecting” lives. These statements come after a surge in infections across the country following the abrupt abandonment of measures to prevent the epidemic.
By Stéphane Lagarde, RFI correspondent in Beijing
These statements by Head of State Xi Jinping come a little late. For almost three weeks, the Chinese leadership seemed to be concerned only with international affairs, and the Chinese felt a bit lonely in the face of the Omicron tsunami. On all social networks – Douyin, Weibo, WeChat – netizens shared the pain for the disappearance of their loved ones. Often elderly people overwhelmed by viral pneumonia in this very cold winter in the north of the country, after three years protected, or rather locked up behind the “great sanitary wall” of zero-Covid.
This strategy has been replaced by that of herd immunity. The new motto is “everyone should take care of their own health”. The result: entire megacities sickened in a matter of days. This was the objective, but it raised doubts and criticism, hence the intervention of the Head of State, whose words were broadcast on the CCTV central television on Monday, September 26. Xi Jinping once again used the metaphor of the wall. The Head of State stated that it was necessary to “build a wall” against the epidemic, to “protect lives”, which has long been the slogan of the Party. Health and life take priority over economic interests, the Chinese leaders had been saying for three years, before opening the floodgates. This led to an increase in infections, medicine shortages and overloaded hospitals.
Also read: China reopens its borders after three years of strict restrictions due to covid-19
Fear of high mortality among the elderly
There has been an increase in deaths and a saturation of funeral homes, as seen in and around Beijing at the time of the peak of the infection, a few days ago. Deaths that do not appear in the balance sheets. First of all, because the definition of deaths from Covid has changed. From now on, only deaths related to pneumonia or respiratory failure will be taken into account. Secondly, because after having stopped counting asymptomatic people, the National Health Commission decided to stop publishing its daily reports on Sunday.
The WHO complained that it was no longer receiving Chinese data. And now it is the provincial authorities that are taking the pulse of the epidemic. The eastern province of Zhejiang was talking about a million new Covid cases a day on Sunday and soon 2 million during the Lunar New Year holidays. According to the models used, this lifting of sanitary restrictions could cause the death of between 300,000 and 1.5 million Chinese in the coming months.
A new “patriotic health campaign
It is not a question of smoothing the contamination curve, of implementing a “stop and go” as has been seen in countries without zero-Covid. This rapid search for collective immunity continues, through infections and vaccination. Xi Jinping spoke of “guiding the masses to acquire health knowledge, better protect themselves and develop good hygiene habits” and creating “thousands of small civilized and healthy environments to build a strong line of social defense against the epidemic.” Thus, these are requirements and, in fact, the only concrete thing that we have seen in recent days is the creation of a map of older people with comorbidities, which makes it possible to strengthen medical care for these populations.
And if foreign mRNA vaccines remain unlicensed in China, foreign treatments, including Pfizer’s, have hit pharmacies. But again, there is no going back from “bowing to the epidemic” (“living with the virus” in Chinese). Viral pneumonia was reclassified as a “novel coronavirus infection” on Monday, taking it out of the “infectious disease management and quarantine” law. This should allow for the faster reopening of schools. And at the borders, China confirmed yesterday the lifting of the quarantine on arrival. It was thought that it would be on January 3, but it will finally be from January 8. Only a negative PCR test will be required to enter China within 48 hours.
