Many Covid cases in China: concern about new mutations

One million Covid-infected people every day, thousands of dead according to estimates: In China there is growing concern about new variants, emergency hospitals are being opened. A CDU politician is calling for all flight connections to be stopped.

More traffic, fuller factories, but also many infections: China is clearly feeling the end of the zero-Covid policy. There are an estimated one million new infections per day in the country. The British research institute Airfinity is currently assuming more than 5000 corona deaths every day. According to their model calculations, the current wave of infections will experience two peaks in January and March with possibly 3.7 million and 4.2 million cases a day, respectively.

However, the official figures are far from that. The National Health Commission speaks of 3761 new corona cases with symptoms compared to 3030 the day before, new deaths are not reported, the total number of victims remains at 5241.

Crematorium workers report that they are busier than usual. Foreign reporters wanting to cover the hearse lines are turned away by the police.

Beware of new variants

The government is now opening fever clinics and emergency hospitals and is pushing drug manufacturers to produce painkillers such as ibuprofen or paracetamol more quickly. The Chinese health authorities are also monitoring the possible development of new virus variants.

All provinces would have to select three hospitals in three cities each, which would collect samples of 15 infections, 10 serious illnesses and all the dead every week, director of the virus institute of the national health bureau Xu Wenbo said, according to state media.

After the decoding and analysis of the genomes, the study results should be reported within a week. In this way, the current omicron variants as well as “possible symptoms, transmission abilities and pathogenicity of new variants with potential biological changes” could be observed in real time, the official Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

No more flights to China?

The wave of infections also concerns politicians in Germany: The foreign policy spokesman for the Union faction, Jürgen Hardt, calls for a stop to flight connections with the People’s Republic. “The exploding Covid numbers in China caused by the Chinese government’s failed corona policy are threatening the whole world with a new wave of infections,” said the CDU MP to the editorial network Germany (RND). “We must not repeat the mistake of three years ago and should now stop all flight connections to and from China immediately.” He campaigned for the flights to be allowed again only when it was certain that no “new, dangerous mutation” was imminent.

The CDU foreign politician also spoke out in favor of renewing the offer to Beijing to use effective mRNA vaccines there. The “arrogance” of China’s President Xi Jinping is “virtually limitless,” said Hardt, who also described Xi as a “dictator.” “His hubris costs lives in his own country every day.”

The health policy spokesman for the Greens, Janosch Dahmen, advocated using masks more frequently with a view to China and the high level of sick leave in this country. “Not only because of the development in China, but also because of the other respiratory diseases in Germany, it is important that we use the mask indoors much more – completely independent of which rules apply,” he told the RND. He also expressed concern about possible new variants due to the high number of infections in China.

China’s U-turn in Corona policy

After almost three years of lockdowns, forced quarantines, mass testing and contact tracing, the most populous country abruptly lifted its tough zero-Covid policy on December 7th. The reason for the turnaround was that the infections with the new omicron variants were no longer as severe. But experts saw the reason above all in the fact that the strict measures could no longer be maintained in view of the explosive spread. The rigorous restrictions had also placed an increasing burden on the second largest economy.