China claims first Covid death in six months as restrictions return
China has announced its first official Covid death in six months as tough restrictions are reintroduced in Beijing and other cities.
China has announced its first official Covid death in six months as restrictions are reintroduced in Beijing and other cities battling to contain multiple outbreaks.
The National Health Commission said that an 87-year-old Beijing man died from the virus on Saturday, the first reported death since May during Shanghai’s outbreak, the Associated Press reported.
Another two deaths were reported on Sunday, a 91-year-old woman and an 88-year-old man.
The official death toll in the country of 1.4 billion now stands at around 5230, compared with more than one million in the US which has a population of 331.9 million.
China also announced 24,215 new cases on Sunday, mostly asymptomatic, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic in Wuhan to 286,197. The US has recorded 98.3 million in the same time.
The country claims its tough “Zero Covid” approach – which includes strict quarantines and mass mandatory testing – has paid off, but Beijing is widely believed to be hiding its true numbers given the Chinese Communist Party’s reputation for manipulating statistics.
Want to stream your news? Flash lets you stream 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer available for a limited time only >
China’s subjective criteria for determining cause of death have also been criticised, with underlying conditions such as diabetes or heart disease often attributed to patients with Covid symptoms.
Residents in Beijing’s Chaoyang district were urged to remain home on Monday due to a sharp rise of nearly 1000 cases, while shops restaurants and other businesses were closed, according to Reuters.
BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonell said while Beijing was not under an official lockdown, the “vast majority” of businesses in Chaoyang were shut and “many companies and government departments have told staff not to come in this week”.
“The closing of businesses etc … has also spread to other parts of Beijing + most schools have switched to online classes,” he wrote. “Some restaurants are doing delivery meals. Covid infections keep going up. Infections found outside of quarantine doubled today.”
The announcement of new deaths comes just days after Beijing was reported to be rethinking its Zero Covid – a key policy of President Xi Jinping – approach that has wreaked havoc on the economy and sparked growing unrest.
Shijiazhuang, a city of 11 million location about 300 kilometres from Beijing, had been rumoured to be a pilot zone for scrapping all virus restrictions.
But local officials denied those rumours – and have now announced a snap lockdown after a 641 new cases rise on Sunday.
Schools and universities have been closed and residents asked to stay home for five days, Bloomberg reported. Those in high risk areas have been forbidden from going outside, while everyone else has been advised to stay home “in principle”.
According to the AP, clashes between increasingly fed-up residents and authorities have been reported in multiple cities despite Beijing’s tight control on information.
Last week, rare violent protests broke out in one of China’s largest cities as frustrated locals pushed back.
On Monday, crowds of people in Guangzhou, the largest city in Guangdong – the southern province that borders Hong Kong – were seen pushing over barriers designed to keep them in place, marching through the streets and upturning vehicles.
The protests followed attempts by authorities to cordon off the compound of a textile factory in the Haizhu district, locking workers inside. It was one of at least five flare-ups related to Covid restrictions in separate areas of the city.
According to Hong Kong newspaper the South China Morning Post, the demonstrations were led by migrant workers who had been in the compound.
Some workers said they had no money as they could not work and were lacking in food and medicine.
Online outrage also intermittently seeps through China’s internet censorship.
Recently a number of children’s deaths in the central city of Zhengzhou were blamed on harsh virus measures. In one case, a four-month-old girl died after suffering vomiting and diarrhoea in hotel quarantine, with health care workers reportedly refusing to provide assistance before she was sent to a hospital 100 kilometres away.
The city government responded to the outrage on Sunday by announcing it would no longer require a negative Covid test from infants and toddlers seeking healthcare, AP reported.
Fear of being subjected to brutal Covid enforcement has led to bizarre scenes in China.
In Zhengzhou, hundreds of workers at Apple’s largest iPhone assembly plant scaled walls last month, scrambled through windows and walked through fields to escape a sudden forced lockdown.
In Shanghai, some 10,000 visitors suddenly found themselves quarantined within the walls of Disneyland. It took three negative antibody tests over three days before they were allowed out.
Meanwhile, Mr Xi himself has been caught in a Covid scare, after Hong Kong’s leader tested positive on his return from an Asia-Pacific summit days after he met with the Chinese President and other heads of state.
John Lee visited Thailand’s capital Bangkok last week to attend a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, with his office saying he tested negative on rapid antigen tests for all four days he was there.
“The chief executive is undergoing quarantine in accordance with the guidelines provided by the Centre for Health Protection,” a government statement said.
The APEC summit was Mr Lee’s first overseas trip since the pandemic began nearly three years ago, as well as his first since taking office as Hong Kong’s chief executive in July.
Lee met with Chinese President Xi, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Vietnamese President Nguyen Phuc and several other senior officials at the forum.
At the informal leaders summit on Friday, Lee sat between Xi and Widodo, with all three unmasked.
The trip aimed in part to revive Hong Kong’s status as a regional financial hub, after the city was effectively cut off from the rest of the world through the pandemic due to strict quarantine requirements for incoming travellers.
The government has relaxed restrictions in recent months, scrapping mandatory hotel quarantine and reducing the number of compulsory tests for arrivals.
More Coverage
Masking remains mandatory in public places, with residents required to check-in on a government-run app at dining and entertainment venues.
Mr Lee’s office said he would continue to work from home during his mandatory isolation period, and that members of his staff who travelled with him had tested negative.
– With AFP
‘One in 43’ chance asteroid strikes Earth
Astronomers have raised the likelihood of asteroid 2024 YR4 colliding with Earth to a brow-sweating 2.3 per cent.
Reason for Aussie shark attack spike
The number of shark attacks has been steadily increasing over the last 10 years, with scientists putting it down to a number of factors, including climate change.
Man told to move after horror yard find
Many people say they would have to move house after seeing the disturbing video.