China put a priority on protecting rural communities from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Friday as millions of city-dwellers planned holidays for the first time in years after Beijing abandoned its stringent system of lockdowns and travel curbs.
December 16, 2022 | 1:28 pmBEIJING/SHANGHAI — China put a priority on protecting rural communities from coronavirus disease 2019 on Friday as millions of city-dwellers planned holidays for the first time in years after Beijing abandoned its stringent system of lockdowns and travel curbs.
China reported 2,157 new symptomatic COVID-19 infections for Dec. 15 compared with 2,000 a day. The official figures, however, have become less reliable as testing has dropped. It also stopped reporting asymptomatic figures on Wednesday. China’s National Health Commission on Friday said it was ramping up vaccinations, especially for the elderly, and building stocks of ventilators, essential drugs, and test kits in rural areas.
On the streets, there are increasing signs of chaos during China’s change of tack — including long queues outside fever clinics, runs on medicines and panic buying across the country. The COVID scare in China also led people in Hong Kong, Macau and in some neighborhoods in Australia to go in search for fever medicines and test kits for family and friends on the mainland.For all its efforts to quell the virus since it erupted in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, China may now pay a price for shielding a population that lacks “herd immunity” and has low vaccination rates among the elderly, analysts said.
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