Total Doses Distributed = 905,043,735. Total Doses Administered = 646,524,294. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 267,032,055. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 227,802,408.
COVID-19 Vaccination Data Updates
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WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
Chinese leaders promised Thursday to improve quarantine and other anti-virus policies after public frustration boiled over into protests but said they will stick to a severe “zero COVID” strategy that has confined millions of people to their homes and disrupted the economy.
President Xi Jinping’s government is enforcing some of the world’s most extreme anti-virus restrictions despite rising costs while other countries ease travel and other curbs. The government has given no indication when it might ease controls that have shut down Shanghai and other major cities for weeks at a time to find and isolate every infected person.
The ruling Communist Party’s seven-member Standing Committee said it will “unswervingly adhere” to “zero COVID” but promised to make it less disruptive. It said 20 changes including in quarantine, testing and treatment were approved but gave no details. The party promised to release “stranded people” who have been in quarantine or blocked for weeks from leaving cities where there are cases.
“We will protect people’s lives and health to the greatest extent and minimize the impact of the epidemic on economic and social development,” the party leaders said in a statement.
“Zero COVID” has kept China’s infection rate relatively low but weighs on the economy and has disrupted life by shutting schools, factories and shops or sealing neighborhoods without warning. The closure of Shanghai and other industrial centers starting in March sent shockwaves through global trade.
Following a new upsurge in cases, a growing number of areas are shutting down businesses and imposing curbs on movement. Videos circulated on social media show people in some areas protesting or fighting with police and health workers.
On Thursday, the National Health Commission reported 1,133 new cases had been found in the previous 24 hours, including 500 in the southern business center of Guangzhou, the latest hot spot. In addition, it said testing found 7,691 people to be infected without showing symptoms.
Forecasters say Chinese economic growth is weakening again after rebounding to 3.9% over a year earlier in the three months ending in September, up from 2.2% in the first half. Economists expect annual growth to be as low as 3%, less than half of last year’s 8.1%.
The Standing Committee was named last month by a party congress that also expanded Xi’s political dominance by appointing him to a third five-year term as leader. It is filled with his allies.
“Zero COVID” requires people to show a negative result from a virus test taken as often as once a day to enter office buildings, shopping malls and other public places. People from cities with a single case in the past week are barred from visiting Beijing, the capital.
Travelers from abroad are required to be quarantined in a hotel for seven to 10 days. Business groups say that discourages foreign executives from visiting, which has prompted companies to shift investment plans to other countries.
Last week, access to part of the central city of Zhengzhou, home to the world’s biggest iPhone factory, was suspended following outbreaks. Thousands of employees walked away from the factory run by Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group last month following complaints that coworkers who fell ill received no help and working conditions were unsafe.
Also last week, people posted outraged comments on social media after a 3-year-old boy whose compound in the northwest was under quarantine died of carbon monoxide poisoning. His father complained that guards who were enforcing the closure refused to help and tried to stop him as he rushed his son to a hospital.
Health experts and economists say “zero COVID” is likely to stay in place for up to one more year. They say millions of elderly people must be vaccinated before Beijing can relax quarantine restrictions on people coming to China.
Share prices of Chinese companies surged on the Hong Kong stock exchange last week after rumors circulated on social media that Beijing was considering easing controls. They fell back after the government did not confirm the rumors.
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
Police in northeastern China said that seven people have been arrested following a clash between residents and authorities enforcing COVID-19 quarantine restrictions.
The violence comes as China reports new cases nationwide, with 2,230 cases reported Tuesday in the southern manufacturing and technology hub of Guangzhou.
While the numbers remain relatively low, China has relentlessly pursued its strict “zero-COVID” policy of quarantines, lockdowns and daily or near-daily compulsory testing.
A news release from the police department in the Shandong city of Linyi said public security would take strong measures against those who “illegally violated the legal rights of personal protection of citizens.”
Anti-pandemic measures have prompted backlashes across the country, forming a rarely seen challenge to Communist Party authority. It wasn’t immediately clear who was arrested after the clash. News of the arrests appeared on social media Tuesday morning, but were erased by the country’s censors before noon.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has made “zero-COVID” a hallmark of his administration, which gained a boost last month after he was granted a third five-year term in power and promoted loyalists to top positions.
Those include the former party leader of Shanghai, where a draconian lockdown over the summer led to food shortages, confrontations with authorities and severe disruptions to global supply chains that have grown dependent on Chinese manufacturing and shipping.
While the rest of the world has mostly opened up, China has taken only highly cautious minor steps, with its borders still largely closed and officials under heavy pressure to enforce restrictions.
China reported its trade shrank in October as global demand weakened and anti-virus controls weighed on domestic consumer spending. Exports declined 0.3% from a year earlier, down from September’s 5.7% growth, the customs agency reported Monday. Imports fell 0.7%, compared with the previous month’s 0.3% expansion.
Speculation about a possible relaxation of “zero-COVID” roiled markets, but the government has kept its plans, including the possibility of importing foreign vaccines, a closely held secret.
Last week, access to the industrial zone where a factory that manufactures Apple iPhones is located was suspended for one week following a surge in infections in Zhengzhou and the departure of workers from the factory. Many climbed fences and walked along highways to avoid being placed in quarantine centers where food, sanitation and privacy standards have been heavily criticized.
Apple announced Sunday that customers will have to wait longer to get its latest iPhone models, saying the Foxconn factory in the central Chinese city Zhengzhou is “operating at significantly reduced capacity.”
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
Thousands of runners took to the streets of China’s capital on Sunday for the return of the Beijing marathon after a two-year COVID-19 hiatus, even as another death blamed on China’s strict pandemic controls generated more public anger.
Authorities are trying to restore a sense of normalcy while sticking to a “zero-COVID” strategy that locks down neighborhoods when any virus cases are found and quarantines everyone arriving from overseas in hotels for seven to 10 days.
A simmering public frustration, which has grown as the rest of the world opens up, has been fueled by a series of tragic incidents — in several cases because people were denied timely care for non-COVID-19 medical emergencies.
An investigation report released Sunday by authorities in Hohhot, the capital of China’s Inner Mongolia region, blamed property management and community staff for not acting quickly enough to prevent the death of a 55-year-old woman in a sealed building after being told she had suicidal tendencies.
The woman fell from her 12th floor apartment on Friday evening. Public outrage over her death and her adult daughter’s frantic attempts to get help earlier and then get out of the barricaded building immediately afterward prompted the investigation. The building had been locked down after two COVID-19 cases were found about 10 days ago.
The woman’s death followed that of a 3-year-old boy earlier last week from a gas leak at his locked-down residential compound in the city of Lanzhou in northwestern China.
In contrast, the mood was upbeat at the Beijing marathon. Participation was limited to city residents, apart from some invited runners. China’s state media said that 30,000 people took part. They had to be vaccinated, not leave Beijing for seven days before the event and show proof of a negative virus test in the previous 24 hours.
Marathons are also planned later this month in Shanghai and Chengdu, a major city in southwestern China.
The death toll has been relatively low in China — 5,226 by the official count — and most people can move about relatively freely within their cities with little chance of contracting COVID-19.
But lockdowns of residential complexes and even larger areas can happen anytime, with little or no warning. All the visitors to Shanghai Disney had to remain in the park to get tested when it was suddenly closed under anti-virus regulations last week.
There is also the inconvenience of having to get a throat swab test every few days to be allowed to enter office buildings, shopping malls and other public places. And people who leave Beijing risk not being allowed to return for a week if an outbreak occurs where they traveled to.
National health officials have repeatedly stressed that local authorities need to take targeted pandemic measures that minimize economic disruption and avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. But local officials also face possible punishment if an outbreak spirals under their watch.
“Since the outbreak of the epidemic, although we have made every effort to protect the lives, health and safety of the people, such unfortunate incidents still occurred,” concluded the investigation into the death of the woman who fell from her apartment in Inner Mongolia. “We will draw a profound lesson from this incident.”
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
Chinese health officials gave no indication Saturday of any relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions, following several days of speculation that the government was considering changes to a “zero-COVID” approach that has stymied economic growth and disrupted daily life.
The officials said at a news conference that they would “unswervingly” stick to the policy, which seeks to stop cases from coming into the country and snuff out outbreaks as they occur.
The announcement was not a surprise and doesn’t rule out the possibility that discussions are taking place behind closed doors. But there has been no official confirmation, and most analysts believe that any change will be gradual and major easing is unlikely until sometime next year.
The speculation rallied stock markets in China this week, with investors as well as the public latching onto any hints of possible change. The death of a 3-year-old boy in a quarantined residential compound fueled growing discontent with the China’s anti-virus controls, which are increasingly out of step with the rest of the world.
Scattered outbreaks across the country continue to prompt travel restrictions and lockdowns. China on Saturday reported identifying about 3,500 new cases the previous day, including about 3,000 who tested positive despite not having any COVID-19 symptoms.
In the city of Guangzhou in the southeast, Haizhu district suspended bus and subway service for three days and urged residents to stay home as it conducts mass testing of its 1.8 million people. One person per household is allowed out each day to shop for necessities.
Restrictions are also in place in parts of the Inner Mongolia region in the north and the Xinjiang region in the west, where 43 new high-risk areas were designated Saturday in Urumqi, the regional capital.