China reported its highest number of new Covid-19 cases in six months on Monday, despite multiple lockdowns disrupting the economy and daily life.
Consequently, the health authorities have showered the hopes of a relaxation of the zero Covid policy, stressing that it will continue to be applied “unwaveringly” despite the weariness of the inhabitants.
This strategy consists of confining neighborhoods or entire cities as soon as cases appear, carrying out massive screenings or even quarantining people who test positive and travelers arriving from abroad.
But these restrictions are sometimes accompanied by poor access to food or medical care and difficulty in traveling within China and abroad, which erodes the patience of the Chinese.
The badly affected coastal province of Guangdong
The Ministry of Health announced nearly 5,500 new local positive cases on Monday, many of them in the coastal province of Guangdong (south), a major manufacturing center.
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In Zhengzhou (center), the largest iPhone factory in the world is still confined.
The site
“is currently operating with a significantly reduced capacity”
and this disruption will lead to delivery delays, the American group Apple conceded on Sunday.
In addition, the suicide by defenestration of a 55-year-old woman in the confined city of Hohhot, in Inner Mongolia (north), caused an outcry this weekend because, by the admission of the authorities themselves, the Covid restrictions have hampered the intervention of the emergency services.
As is sometimes the case in China in certain districts, the access doors of the residential building had been sealed to prevent any entry and exit.
The two daughters of the unfortunate, one of whom lived in the same apartment, had however warned the authorities that their mother suffered from anxiety and had suicidal thoughts, asking in vain for her evacuation.
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“Who has the right to weld the doors of the buildings?
»
“Who has the right to weld the doors of the buildings?
“
, wondered, furious, a user on the social network Weibo.
“In the event of an earthquake or a fire, who will be responsible?
Local
authorities have publicly criticized poor management by neighborhood officials.
Dramas related to anti-Covid restrictions occur regularly.
A few days ago, a three-year-old child died of asphyxiation by carbon monoxide in Lanzhou, the confined capital of Gansu province (northwest).
In a message published on the internet but now deleted, his father accused the agents in charge of the application of the containment of having hindered his access to the hospital.
The district authorities then apologized.