The "Shanghai phenomenon": Most of the people are symptom-free, but the lockdown is tough
Created: 04/19/2022, 13:20
By: Magdalena von Zumbusch
Due to a violent corona wave, several cities in China are partially or completely sealed off, including the economic metropolis of Shanghai.
© Yang Youzong/Xinhua/AP/dpa
Shanghai is still in a state of emergency: The Omicron variant has the city under control, the number of sick people has risen to over 3,000 a day.
But so far there have been hardly any deaths.
Shanghai – Even without symptoms, a person infected with corona can pass on the virus.
The health authorities in Shanghai are currently afraid of this.
The city is in tough lockdown.
Nevertheless, the new infections are stable at over 20,000 a day.
At the same time, the majority of omicron cases are symptom-free, even if the number of sufferers has increased significantly in the meantime.
On Tuesday, authorities reported more than 3,000 people with symptoms.
But so far only seven people of an older age have died.
Corona numbers have been skyrocketing across China since March.
With the Omikron variant BA.2, the country is currently having to endure another corona high.
There are curfews in Shanghai, the country's economic center, and other major cities.
The eastern Chinese port metropolis is at the center of the largest corona outbreak in China since the pandemic began a good two years ago.
There has been a strict lockdown in Shanghai since the end of March.
Most of the 26 million inhabitants are not allowed to leave their homes.
Corona numbers in China at the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic
The Health Commission in Beijing reported just over 21,000 new infections for China on Tuesday (April 19), the overwhelming majority of them in Shanghai and asymptomatic.
During the current omicron surge in China since March, about 70 percent of reported cases are asymptomatic, according to the
South China Morning Post
.
And more than 90 percent of asymptomatic infections in China originate from Shanghai, according to the report.
Unlike other countries, China separates the number of cases into people with and without symptoms of Covid 19 disease.
High number of asymptomatic corona cases: Expert from China names causes
Why are there so many asymptomatic cases in Shanghai?
Fu Chen, director of the Shanghai Center for Disease Prevention and Control, cited
a number of factors, notably people's immunity, vaccination coverage, characteristics of the virus and the fact that cases are caught early due to mass testing , according to
Focus .
Of Shanghai's 25 million residents, 22 million are fully vaccinated and half have received their booster shots, Fu said.
Most of those who tested positive were fully vaccinated.
The vaccinations can prevent severe courses in particular, but they can also alleviate symptoms or prevent them from occurring at all.
Chinese health authorities have
reported that 95 percent of cases have either no or very mild symptoms, according to the
South China Morning Post report.
This fits with the findings of corona research that omicron causes milder courses on average than other variants of the virus.
It also plays an important role that the mass tests ordered in Shanghai reveal a very large proportion of asymptomatic infections.
This is important because the current omicron wave in China should be taken seriously: the number of symptomatic cases has already started to rise as the wave progresses.
Omikron puts China's zero-Covid strategy to the test: The country does not want to change course
Anyone who is infected must go to one of the quarantine camps that have been provisionally set up for tens of thousands in China - even if they are symptom-free.
China is pursuing a strict zero-Covid strategy, which will be severely tested with the arrival of Omicron BA.2.
Is a strategy change in China necessary?
Health Minister Ma Xiaowei finds: No.
He warned the country to stick to the zero-Covid strategy and expressly ruled out any easing.
In an essay in a party university journal, the minister challenged the “erroneous” idea of being able to live with the virus.
Larger outbreaks would have to be prevented and the hard-won successes in the fight against the pandemic secured.
(dpa)
