It’s a 180 degree turn. In the southwestern Chinese province-municipality of Chongqing, which has a population of more than 30 million, residents can now go to work, even if they have symptoms of Covid-19, said announced the authorities.
“Asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients can go to work normally”, she said in a notice published on Sunday, December 18. The document stipulates that no screening test will no longer be required, with the exception of schools or health establishments.
At the other end of the country, the province of Zhejiang, bordering Shanghai, has also decided that people with mild symptoms can ” continue to work “ provided you take “protective measures”.
Totally unprecedented wave of contamination in Beijing
China, where a single case could previously lock down thousands of people, abruptly did an about-face in early December and lifted most of the health restrictions that had been in place for nearly three years after the first outbreaks emerged. coronavirus cases in Wuhan city. Since the lifting of restrictions, a wave of cases has swept over the country, but the authorities are trying to reassure on the benign nature of the virus despite its contagiousness.
In the name of a strict so-called zero Covid policy, the Chinese were recently subjected to almost daily screenings and mandatory quarantines in the event of a positive PCR test. Neighborhoods, even entire cities, could be confined as soon as a handful of cases were discovered. The government is now encouraging people to isolate themselves at home when symptoms of Covid-19 appear.
Experts fear that China is ill-equipped to deal with this wave of infections, as the country continues to reopen, with millions of vulnerable elderly people yet to be vaccinated. Beijing and its 22 million inhabitants are particularly affected by this wave of contamination, totally unprecedented in the city since the beginning of the pandemic and which has spread at lightning speed in recent days.