With the growing dissatisfaction of the population, China abandoned the main pillars of its “zero Covid” policy to contain the epidemic at the beginning of this month, and canceled the closures, examinations, quarantine and travel restrictions that all affect the Chinese economy.
Cities across China are struggling to stem a surge in infections that has emptied pharmacy shelves and filled hospital rooms as well as cremation centers.
But the abolition of these measures made it almost impossible to track the number of infections, while the authorities changed their approach to defining death due to Corona, in a move that experts say aims to reduce the numbers related to deaths caused by the Corona virus.
And the death toll now includes only people who died of respiratory failure directly related to “Corona”. A methodology that, according to experts, aims to reduce the number of deaths attributed to the epidemic.
And in Qingdao, one of the media run by the ruling Communist Party on Friday quoted the municipal health director as saying that the city in the east of the country is witnessing “between 490,000 and 530,000” new cases of “Corona” daily.
Bo Tao, whose statements were published in the article, said that the coastal city, which has a population of regarding 10 million, is witnessing “a stage of rapid spread of infection before it approaches its peak.”
He added, “The same official said that the infection rate will accelerate by another 10% over the weekend.”
Several other media carried the article, which was edited on Saturday morning to remove numbers from it.
On Saturday, the Chinese Ministry of Health announced that “4,103 new infections were recorded on Friday across the country, but there are no deaths.”
In Shandong, the province in which Qingdao is located, the authorities have only officially reported 31 new local infections.
The Chinese government tightly controls the country’s media, with tight censorship of the internet costly to remove any content deemed politically sensitive.
Most of the government media downplayed the seriousness of the new wave of Corona. Instead, she described the “COVID label” policy change as logical and precise.
Media reported a shortage of medicines and pressure on hospitals, but estimates of the actual number of injuries remain scarce.
And the government of Jiangxi Province (east of the country) expected, in a post on social media, Friday, that 80% of its population – or regarding 36 million people – would be infected with the virus until March.
She added that more than 18,000 “Covid” patients were admitted to major hospitals in the province in the two weeks to Thursday, including regarding 500 serious cases, but no deaths were recorded.