Is China preparing to limit travel within the country again to try to contain the explosion of Covid-19 cases? Five weeks after the de facto abandonment of the zero Covid policy, on December 7, 2022, a manager has just mentioned this possibility for the first time. During a press conference held on January 11, Chang Zhaorui, a researcher at the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that due to the rapid spread of the virus, it was necessary to to focus on “the control of the Covid in certain institutions or key places”.
She then cited the institutions that take care of the elderly, the health of children, as well as psychiatric hospitals, schools, postal services and medical institutions. But the list “may also include passenger stations, shopping malls, supermarkets, markets (…) and other crowded and confined places,” explained the researcher. In these places, “the government suggests that visitors must present a negative Covid test of less than forty-eight hours”, indicates the state television, CGTN.
While the tests, systematic until December 7, 2022, have since disappeared, as have the countless urban cabins where they were carried out, the return of such a screening policy would not only be complex to implement, but would above all constitute the acknowledgment of a new failure. Hence, no doubt, the fact that the government is content for the moment with ” suggest “ such tests, an expression rarely used by the Chinese authorities.
A peak on January 13
They seem to fear in particular an acceleration of the spread of the virus on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, Sunday January 22. As hundreds of millions of Chinese prepare to spend the holidays with their families – which many of them have not been able to do in the past two years due to the health measures imposed by Beijing – Professor Guo Jianwen, member of the state council’s epidemic prevention team on Thursday urged Chinese people not to visit the elderly. “You have many ways to show that you care about them. There is no need to pass the virus on to them,” he warned.
Faced with the shortage of drugs, China resolves to accelerate the import of Western treatments. On Wednesday, the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm claimed to have imported “hundreds of thousands of boxes” of molnupiravir, the antiviral treatment developed by the American Merck. It should go on sale on Friday January 13 at a price of 1,500 yuan (about 205 euros) for a box of 40 pills. On the other hand, the Paxlovid, sold by Pfizer at a price of 1,890 yuan per box (258 euros) was deemed too expensive by the Chinese authorities. Pills produced by Pfizer in China may be available ” in the coming months “.
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