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Criticism of China's zero-Covid policy is growing: Even the WHO is now calling for a change of course

2022-05-12T05:25:04.692Z


Criticism of China's zero-Covid policy is growing: Even the WHO is now calling for a change of course Created: 05/12/2022, 07:16 By: Christiane Kuehl Locked up: Almost all Shanghainese still have to endure the lockdown. After all, these two are allowed in the courtyard of their housing complex. © Imago/Kyodo News China's zero-Covid policy is coming under more pressure. More and more foreign ex


Criticism of China's zero-Covid policy is growing: Even the WHO is now calling for a change of course

Created: 05/12/2022, 07:16

By: Christiane Kuehl

Locked up: Almost all Shanghainese still have to endure the lockdown.

After all, these two are allowed in the courtyard of their housing complex.

© Imago/Kyodo News

China's zero-Covid policy is coming under more pressure.

More and more foreign experts consider the hard line to have failed.

But there is also increasing resentment in the country, especially in the sealed-off Shanghai.

Beijing/Munich – Criticism of China's zero-Covid policy is increasing.

In view of the constant stream of horror reports from the sealed-off city of Shanghai, Beijingers' fears of a lockdown in the capital, collapsing economic growth, ship congestion and disrupted supply chains, foreigners in particular believe the strict policy has failed.

German virologists or the EU Chamber of Commerce in China have recently repeatedly called for an end to the tough lockdowns and instead for a large-scale vaccination campaign - ideally with international mRNA vaccines.

Now even the World Health Organization (WHO) has joined in the chorus of critics.

"When we talk about the zero-Covid strategy, we don't think it's tenable given how the virus is behaving now and what we expect for the future," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday somewhat awkward in Geneva.

Chinese experts have been informed of this assessment.

He considers a realignment of the strategy to be "very important".

This is remarkable because the WHO had consistently praised China for its hard line until the start of the global omicron wave.

China has so far confirmed fewer than 5,000 deaths, in the US there are almost a million. 

A model presented by Chinese and US researchers on Tuesday warned that if the zero-Covid policy were to end and comprehensive easing in China, there would then be “a tsunami of Covid-19 cases” between May and July, with a total of more than 1 .5 million deaths could occur.

That definitely played into the hands of the government, because they too are concerned about the uncontrolled spread of the virus with many deaths.

China: Xi Jinping continues to insist on perseverance and zero-Covid

Officially, Beijing is now paying more attention to the interests of the economy.

For example, the central government asked the authorities in the Shanghai area to reduce excessive controls on truck traffic.

Premier Li Keqiang recently emphasized that he must ensure that the economy does not fall by the wayside.

But the priority is and remains zero-Covid.

Xi Jinping just called again

population to "persistence" in the fight against the pandemic.

The trapped residents of Shanghai shouldn't like to hear that.

Although the new infections in the port metropolis are steadily declining, there has been no real easing there so far.

On the contrary: In order to permanently reduce the number of cases to zero in infection-free zones, easing there was even withdrawn.

During a multi-day "shutdown" period, residents were not even allowed to have food or medicine delivered.

In residential complexes with more infections, even the neighbors of those who tested positive were sometimes shipped to quarantine centers.

Some inmates described these on social media as refugee camps or gulags, writes the US newspaper

New York Times

.

Residents are only allowed to leave their quarters occasionally to buy groceries in the few shops that are open.

Shanghai: University professors warn of violating the law during lockdown in Shanghai

More than 20 university professors across China called on Shanghai this week to end "excessive pandemic prevention."

Some measures imposed during the lockdown violated applicable laws, the professors wrote, according to a report by Hong Kong newspaper

South China Morning Post

in an open letter.

It circulated on social media for several hours before falling victim to censorship – as did the entire account of Tong Zhiwei, the professor of constitutional studies at the East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai who was in charge of the campaign, with more than 400,000 followers.

Tong, himself a member of the Chinese Communist Party, had written that the consequences of the corona restrictions were serious and could lead to "some kind of legal disaster".

WHO Emergency Director Michael Ryan also stressed that it is important to respect “individual rights and human rights” in all measures to combat the pandemic and to balance “control measures against the impact on society and the economy”.

Shanghai: Fear of infection wave despite falling number of cases

Videos circulated over the weekend of quarantine personnel in hazmat suits and armed with disinfectants knocking on doors in downtown Huangpu District to disinfect the entire home of those affected.

The campaign drew anger and ridicule.

Some users posted tips on how those affected can protect electronics, food and valuables with plastic wrap.

Health officials rushed to stress that the disinfection teams would never force entry into homes, according to local media reports.

The case shows the great nervousness of everyone involved after six weeks of lockdown.

Citizens are increasingly impatient and displeased in the face of permanent lockdown and sometimes rude health workers.

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The number of daily new infections in Shanghai has been in the four-digit range for almost two weeks.

On Wednesday, the authorities reported 1,500 cases, only half as many as the day before.

228 people showed symptoms, seven patients died.

According to official data, up to 612,500 people have contracted the virus in the city of 25 million since March 1.

The death toll since April 18 has risen to 560, a fatality rate of 0.09 percent of those infected.

Shanghai authorities: danger of increasing case numbers not averted

But the city fathers apparently do not believe that the current wave will end any time soon.

"We still see the risk of cases rising again," Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the Shanghai Health Commission, told reporters on Wednesday.

"Shanghai remains determined to pursue the dynamic zero-Covid policy." China has not yet had an exit strategy from this strict policy.

At the same time, China is still not launching a large-scale vaccination campaign, but continues to rely on mass tests and isolation centers.

In Shanghai, the authorities also promoted treatments with drugs from traditional Chinese medicine.

The Chinese vaccines are considered less effective against the highly contagious omicron variant.

Despite this, China continues to refuse to allow foreign vaccines such as Biontech's mRNA vaccine.

Critics therefore speak of vaccination nationalism.

Meanwhile, Beijing reacted thin-skinned to the criticism of the WHO.

China hopes the WHO director-general can avoid "irresponsible" statements and look objectively at China's Covid policy, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday.

In KP jargon, “objective” always means “friendly to China.” Social media also censored Tedros’ statements.

(ck)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-05-12

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