The ‘zero tolerance’ to Covid is turning into a boomerang for China’s leadership: the thousands of people who took to the streets yesterday in various cities of the country have directly targeted the Communist Party and President Xi for the first time, whose resignations have been requested.
In this context The number of new coronavirus infections in China broke its record for the fifth consecutive day: the National Health Commission reported that yesterday 40,347 cases were detected, of which 36,525 (90.5%) are asymptomatic.
Of the 3,822 symptomatic cases, the vast majority (3,748) were transmitted locally within the country’s borders, with particular incidence in areas such as Guangzhou (southeast, 1,347 infections), Beijing (840) or Chongqing (central, 238).
These three areas also accounted for more than half of the new asymptomatic cases recorded in the country, although it should be remembered that health authorities do not include them in the list of confirmed cases if they do not start showing the required symptoms. The Commission also indicated that 74 of the symptomatic cases and 221 of the asymptomatic cases were identified in travelers from abroad.
Nationwide, there are more than 342,000 people in isolation under medical observation as asymptomatic carriers of the virus, including nearly 1,700 from other territories.
China, which has a strict “zero tolerance” policy towards the new coronavirus, has seen waves of outbreaks attributed to the omicron variant in recent months leading to record numbers of infections not seen since the pandemic began in the first half of the 2020. The number of patients with symptoms in mainland China now stands at 33,129, of which 104 are in serious condition.
Protest in Beijing against China’s Covid measures
Meanwhile, the concern of investors regarding the risk that rising COVID-19 cases will fuel more protests and that social unrest will further weaken the economy, does open Asian stock exchanges in the red.
Tokyo is now down 0.60% while mainland China’s SZSE is down 1.63%. Shanghai dropped 1.80% and Hong Kong 2.60% but had also reached over -3.5%. Taiwan marks -1.79% and the Korean Kospi is also negative with -0.94%.
