China to Face a New Coronavirus Wave

As the travel crunch for the Lunar New Year starts, China is preparing for a Covid boom.

Despite dire warnings for the most susceptible and a sharp rise in the official coronavirus death toll, tourists are flocking to rural areas.

On Monday, people from China's major cities raced to the country's train stations and airports with their suitcases, making their way home for the holidays despite concerns that the number of people exposed to the deadly Covid-19 virus over the break may rise.

China suddenly reversed its zero-Covid policy in early December, allowing the virus to spread freely across the country of 1.4 billion people after three years of stringent and oppressive anti-virus regulations.

On Saturday, officials reported that approximately 60,000 patients with Covid had deceased in hospitals between December 8 and January 12. This is a significant rise from earlier statistics, which had been questioned by the World Health Organization for not representing the magnitude and gravity of the epidemic.

Specialists have stated that the estimates likely undercounted the number of persons who passed away at home due to lack of access to medical care, particularly in rural regions. Several scientists have argued that over a million Chinese citizens will lose their lives to the sickness this year. Official media has been rife with reports of rural hospitals and clinics stocking up on medications and equipment in preparation for the lunar new year vacations, also known as the spring festival, beginning on January 21. The National Health Commission of China said that they will provide pulse oximeters, which measure oxygen levels in the blood, to every rural clinic in the country in the event of an outbreak.

Numerous eyewitnesses have reported that Beijing's main train station has been very busy with people departing the city in the last few days. According to Xinhua, China's official state news agency, temporary night trains have been introduced in Shanghai to accommodate the growing number of tourists visiting the province of Anhui in the country's easternmost region.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, arrivals in Macau, a major gaming centre, topped 55,000, the biggest day total since the crisis started.

Between January 18 and 21, the Hong Kong administration has announced it would boost the daily quota of persons allowed to cross designated land-border control stations into the mainland from 50,000 to 65,000.

The Chinese transportation ministry has predicted that there would be over 2 billion journeys taken in the weeks leading up to the holidays.

However, China's tourism industry is booming again, which is giving economists hope that the country's slowing economy may soon begin to recover. With these expectations in mind, Asian stock markets soared on Monday, adding to the 4.2% gains made during the previous five trading days.

Global oil prices have been maintained by hopes of a resurgence in demand from China, the world's largest importer, which helped push up China's blue-chip index by 0.6% on Monday.

This week, China will release statistics on economic growth, retail sales, and industrial production, and although experts predict that it will be disappointing, they predict that markets will look beyond the numbers to focus on how China's reopening may boost economic expansion.

 

Source: the guardian.com