The government is constantly having to put new cities under lockdown to prevent the spread of infections. The arrest of an employee at a testing laboratory in the central Chinese province of Henan also gave cause for concern.
Cutting hair in a protective suit in Xi’an: The city of over a million people was put under lockdown after a local virus outbreak.
The allegations are serious: The manager of a local test laboratory was arrested on Wednesday in the city of Xuchang for “acts that contributed to the spread of the corona virus or seriously increased the risk of spreading the virus”. The police in the central Chinese province of Henan said. The authorities in the neighboring city of Yuzhou are also investigating the manager named Zhang. He is suspected of “criminal acts”.
There have recently been corona outbreaks in several cities in Henan. The authorities imposed a temporary lockdown on the city of Yuzhou, which has a population of 1.1 million. According to the state Global Times newspaper On January 2, the KingMed Diagnostics branch in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou was commissioned to help test the population of Yuzhou.
rumors online
After the arrest became known, rumors spread on the Internet that the KingMed employee had lost test samples and manipulated data. In a brief statement, the company denied the allegations and said Zhang works in logistics at KingMed and is not involved in testing. The company called on Chinese people not to participate in spreading rumors and misinformation.
KingMed Diagnostics was founded in 2003 and has been listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange since 2017. According to the company, it operates 37 laboratories in China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Chinese authorities have repeatedly commissioned KingMed to carry out tests during corona outbreaks. Zhong Nanshan, China’s most renowned virologist, is a member of the company’s advisory board.
In the course of the rapid global spread of the omicron variant, there have now been outbreaks in a number of Chinese cities, which have also been infected with the highly contagious variant. Almost three weeks before the opening of the Winter Olympics, the authorities are facing a huge challenge in containing the spread of infection. The situation has never been so threatening since the first wave was contained in spring 2020.
Contagions now also in Shanghai
While the situation in the city of Xi’an, with a population of 11 million, which the government imposed a lockdown on just before Christmas, is gradually easing, the authorities in Shanghai have registered several new infections. The virus is said to have been brought in by a passenger from the USA. There were also new infections in Zhongshan in the southern province of Guangdong and in the tech metropolis of Shenzhen. The first omicron case was reported in Beijing over the weekend.
The current sources of infection in Tianjin are particularly insidious. The city of 12 million is only 12o kilometers south-east of Beijing, and many people commute between the two cities every day. Travelers from Tianjin are no longer allowed to go to the capital. The authorities are also refusing entry to residents of other cities with confirmed infections. The government isn’t sealing off Beijing yet, but they are Stitches in the fence around the capital are getting tighter.
China’s state press is constantly declaring that the zero-tolerance strategy will also deal with the Omicron variant. In fact, however, it is becoming increasingly difficult to plug the ever-new holes. The question of how long Beijing can maintain its not uncontroversial course is becoming ever clearer. The constant local lockdowns leave their mark on the economic balance sheet, for example because supply chains are repeatedly interrupted.
Zhong Nanshan recently gave a little courage. The virologist pointed out that China had practically achieved herd immunity with a vaccination rate of 86 percent. In addition, 23 percent were triple vaccinated. The problem is that China’s vaccines are less effective than western vaccines. Although Omicron must be regarded as a “big enemy”, said Zhong. In the medium term, however, the virus and humans would “coexist side by side” as with the flu.