China’s coronavirus cases are surging, and hard-hit areas of Beijing have closed schools

BEIJING, November 21 (Reuters) – Students at schools in several Beijing districts on Monday began taking online lessons after officials called on residents in some of the hardest-hit areas to stay home, as coronavirus cases surged in the Chinese capital. and its height nationwide.

China is battling multiple COVID-19 outbreaks, from Zhengzhou in central Henan Province to Chongqing in the southwest. It reported 26,824 new locally transmitted cases on Sunday, close to the country’s daily epidemic peak in April.

Two deaths were also recorded in Beijing, up from one on Saturday, and the first in China since late May.

Guangzhou, the southern city of about 19 million people battling China’s largest outbreak recently, ordered a five-day lockdown of Baiyun, its most populous district. It also suspended dining services and closed nightclubs and theaters in the city’s main business district.

The latest wave is testing China’s resolve to stick to adjustments it has made to its anti-coronavirus policy, which calls on cities to be more targeted in their repressive measures and steer clear of the widespread lockdowns and testing that have stifled the economy and demoralized the population.

Asian stock markets and oil prices fell on Monday as investors worried about the economic fallout from the worsening coronavirus situation in China, with risk aversion benefiting bonds and the dollar.

Beijing recorded 962 new infections, up from 621 the previous day. The sprawling Chaoyang District, home to 3.5 million people, has urged residents to stay home, as schools go online.

The streets were quiet and residents were urged to work from home. Shops other than those selling groceries seemed mostly closed.

“You can’t go anywhere. Everything is closed. Customers can’t come either. What can you do? You can’t do anything,” said Jia Shi, 32, a salesman in the pharmaceutical industry.

Some schools in Haidian, Dongcheng and Xicheng districts have also suspended in-person teaching.

Reverse approach

Several Chinese cities began cutting routine community-based COVID-19 testing last week, including the northern city of Shijiazhuang, which has become the subject of intense speculation that it could be a test bed to cool politics.

But late Sunday, Shijiazhuang announced it would conduct mass testing in six of its eight counties over the next five days after new daily domestic cases reached 641. It also encouraged residents to shop online and ordered some schools to suspend in-person teaching.

“They’ve been going on for a week,” said a popular comment on Weibo on the Shijiazhuang border, which was among the most viewed topics on the social media platform.

People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, on Monday published another article emphasizing the need to catch infections early but to avoid a “one-size-fits-all” approach, the eighth such article since China announced its 20th Amendment. Measures on November 11th.

On Monday, the National Health Commission published more Detailed instructions on how these measures apply to testing, identification and management of risk areas as well as home isolation practices.

feeling stoned

China’s recent efforts to make COVID-19 restrictions more targeted to investors have raised hopes of more significant easing even as China faces its first winter battling the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Many analysts expect such a shift to only begin in March or April, however, and the government argues that President Xi Jinping’s signature of the COVID-19 non-spread policy saves lives and is needed to prevent the health care system from becoming overwhelmed.

Experts argue that a full reopening would require a massive effort to promote vaccination and a change in messaging in a country where the disease is still widely feared. Authorities say they plan to build more hospitals and fever clinics to screen patients and are formulating a vaccination campaign.

Oxford Economics said it only expects to emerge from a zero-COVID situation in the second half of 2023, as vaccination rates for older adults remain relatively low.

“From an epidemiological and political perspective, we do not believe the country is yet ready to open up,” she said in Monday’s report.

A gradual, managed reopening may already be underway, with rounds of back-and-forth as China “crosses the river while feeling stoned,” Hao Hong, chief economist at GROW Investment Group, said in a separate note.

“Despite the mounting challenges, the question is not whether China will reopen, but the question of how long and how best to reduce healthcare costs and potential lives lost,” he said.

Reporting from the Shanghai and Beijing newsrooms. Writing by Brenda Goh; Edited by Tony Monroe and Lincoln Feast

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