For quite some time, I have questioned the accuracy of the reports regarding the number of coronavirus cases in China.
However, the delta variant of the pathogen likely bioengineered in their Wuhan laboratories is so infectious that the Chinese Communist Party has allowed reports of a surge in the number of cases.
Clusters of COVID-19 cases have emerged in several cities in China after months of no official reports of outbreaks.Many of the cases are being traced to visitors to a live show held in Hunan Province last week and an airport in Nanjing.Domestic tourists who visited Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Hunan tested positive for the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus in different parts of the country after leaving the province, China Central Television reported.More than 3,000 people attended the indoor show, which included dance performances by artists wearing costumes representing Hunan’s minority groups. Chinese media footage shows the audience either not wearing masks or with their masks lowered.
China is now on “high alert.”
Officials in Nanjing are now on “high alert” and plan to test all the city’s residents, having already got through 1.9 million people in one day, the Xinhua news agency reported Thursday.China has crushed previous spikes with strictly enforced lockdowns, quarantines and controls on international travel.After the initial Covid outbreak, which was first recorded in Wuhan in December 2019, China’s flare-ups have been relatively minor by international standards and in the context of China’s 1.4 billion population.
The indications are that it is the worst series of outbreaks since the original ones in Wuhan.
A Covid outbreak first discovered in the Chinese city of Nanjing has spread to five provinces and Beijing, with state media calling it the most extensive contagion after Wuhan.Almost 200 people have been infected since the virus was first detected at the city’s busy airport on 20 July.All flights from Nanjing airport will be suspended until 11 August, according to local media.Officials also began city-wide testing amid criticism for their “failure”.All 9.3 million of the city’s residents – including those visiting – will be tested, said state-controlled Xinhua news.
China, and any country attempting to take the “zero tolerance” approach, is doomed to failure. The virus, explicitly adapted to the human respiratory system, now must be considered ubiquitous. Everyone will at some point get exposed to, and likely be infected with, the SARS-Cov-2 virus. There is no “crushing” this pathogen. We can only assess personal risk factors and decide about vaccinations and health matters that promote mild symptoms and swift recoveries.
The moment any “zero tolerance” nation opens up, it will begin experiencing cases. As this reality sets in, China is starting to rethink its approach to the virus.
China’s commitment to a zero-tolerance approach for coronavirus infections may be starting to fray.
Since the start of the pandemic, China has embraced a stringent approach to containing the coronavirus, sealing off entire cities and tightly controlling borders to keep infection rates down.Officials borrowed from the same playbook when a cluster of cases recently emerged in the eastern city of Nanjing, placing 9.3 million residents in semi-lockdown. Nearly all in-person commercial and social activity was suspended and neighborhoods considered high-risk were cordoned off. Taxis were told not to leave the city, and residents were subject to mass testing.But as coronavirus cases continued to pop up this week in other cities as a result of the highly contagious delta variant, driving new infections in China to a six-month high, some experts have suggested the need for a shift in strategy.“The Nanjing outbreak has prompted a national stress test and serves as food for thought for the future of our pandemic response,” said Zhang Wenhong, an infectious-disease specialist often regarded as China’s Anthony S. Fauci, in a statement Thursday.
I am experiencing a great deal of schadenfreude over this news. China’s biological antics resulted in a lot of personal heartache and professional challenges with my family. The same is true for families around the US and the globe.
The fact that the Communist Party of China cannot dictate its way out of clusters, outbreaks, and cases is, indeed, satisfying. I can’t wait to see how it blames the US for these recent developments.
That being said, I must add a note of caution. We do have no idea the extent of the coronavirus impact on China, nor are we ever likely to see that data. These “reports” could also be a stunt to help drive panic pandemic reporting in the West.
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