China without zero Covid: Virus is spreading rapidly in Beijing

After the end of the zero-Covid policy, the first hospitals in China’s capital are overcrowded. While government agencies compare the virus variants with the flu, fever medication and rapid tests are becoming rare. Virologists expect a wave of infections.

Normality is simulated on Chinese state television: more than 9,000 cinemas across the country have reopened. Visitors are happy that they no longer have to show a PCR test, like this one:

But the cinemas should not be full at the moment. Many people in China are concerned about the recent easing and increasing number of infections. You don’t dare leave the house. Or they have Covid.

Beijing seems partially deserted

Beijing is the hotspot of the current wave. The virus is spreading rapidly in China’s capital. Anyone who is not currently positive themselves usually has many colleagues, acquaintances and relatives who have Corona. That didn’t exist in the People’s Republic for almost three years.

Although everything is allowed to reopen, Beijing, with its more than 20 million inhabitants, sometimes seems deserted. Entire office floors have been swept empty because of Covid 19 infections, restaurants are closed because there is a lack of staff, internet orders are piling up at the distribution stations because drivers are calling in sick in droves.

Is this just the beginning of the wave?

Fever-reducing painkillers are often sold out. Thousands of people are going to hospitals. Sometimes queues form in front of the clinics. There are reports of hospitals already being overwhelmed.

So far, the big chaos seems to be missing. But it’s just the beginning of the wave. Virologists expect that the number of cases will continue to rise significantly in the coming weeks and that the virus will spread quickly across the country. Paradoxically, the official number of cases is falling. There is no longer an overview of the infection process, most PCR test stations have been closed in recent weeks. Rapid tests are often scarce, and there is no system for counting cases.

Older people in particular are not vaccinated

While China generally has a high vaccination rate, millions of elderly people are under-vaccinated. Just today, China approved a second booster for risk groups and people over 60 years of age.

A week ago, the state and party leadership surprisingly and largely unprepared officially abolished most of the Covid regulations, after the strictest corona rules in the world had previously applied in China for almost three years.

While state media warned of the deadly virus until recently, the narrative is now completely different. China’s best-known pandemic expert, the pulmonologist Zhong Nanshan, compares the omicron subtypes prevalent in China to a flu on state television:

The apps are becoming less important

The otherwise ubiquitous local Covid tracking apps are becoming less and less important and are often no longer checked at all. If you still get a PCR test, it often no longer appears in the apps.

Earlier this week, the national tracking app was shut down. Fears that the state and party leadership could continue to use the tracking apps to control people’s movements even after the end of the zero-Covid policy have not come true.

end of quarantine?

After travelers to China had to be in hotel quarantine for several weeks, there are now rumors that this will soon be abolished completely. If you come to China, you only have to isolate yourself at home for three days. According to reports, this is already done unofficially at some airports in the country.

Hong Kong has also further relaxed its corona rules in the course of the events in the country: As of today, you no longer have to scan yourself in the Chinese special administrative region with the corona tracking app. In addition, all restrictions on travelers who can show a negative test are lifted.