Return of COVID-19 in Beijing: Impact Assessment
Even though Beijing was able to avoid any new Covid-19 cases in the last quarter of 2021, some cases made their way into Beijing, but the cases are very few and tracked down swiftly to contain the impact as much as possible, parts of China have increased restrictions on movement, with the capital Beijing sealing off some areas and northwestern regions imposing various transportation restrictions and closing public venues keeping mind a fresh Covid-19 outbreak. Malls and residential compounds in most of the central districts in the capital were closed off Due to these new cases. Authorities in Beijing have increased the detection and prevention measures like testing for possible infections and restricting hotel bookings as the number of coronavirus cases climbed to nine on 23rd October. Other parts of the country also reported some locally transmitted Covid-19 cases.
The Changping district of Beijing restricted people in higher-risk areas from going outside from their residential compounds cancelled all face-to-face classes at schools close to those areas and ordered businesses in the buffer are to stop operations. Six local cases, some of the highly transmissible Delta variants, were detected in October's last week in Beijing, which has vowed high vigilance ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics Games in February. Beijing city has started injecting booster vaccine doses, with groups including people taking part in the Games given before it. “The outbreak was traced back to an elderly couple who came in contact with a group of domestic tourists who flew from Shanghai to Xi'an Gansu province and inner magnolia.”[1] many cases have since been linked to their trip, with close contacts in multiple provinces and regions including Beijing and inner magnolia.
“China has maintained a staunch Zero-Covid strategy with strict border closures, lengthy quarantines and targeted lockdowns.”[2] With these new cases, a partial lockdown is imposed where travel is allowed but tourist places are currently closed. Even though the new cases are a little bit alarming brief gap in the cases in Beijing, the situation is unlikely to imply that the worst is yet to come, with the infrastructure and manpower of the global city Beijing is tackling the new cases and maintaining the lockdown very effectively to stop any further spread of the cases. the authorities can stop any of the viruses, even though most of the data about the vaccines and the cases coming from most parts of China is sketchy and not 100 per cent reliable there is no hint to think that there is going to be under the wave hitting the Beijing. there is no drastic surge is being observed as of now, and it looks like Beijing is going to bring back a sense of normalcy once again in the city.
The Beijing Health Commission alerted its residents, on November 1st saying “not to leave the Chinese capital unless necessary amid the surge in the Covid-19 cases and asked residents who have not returned to the city to postpone the schedule, people under the closed-off management and among high-risk clusters should stay indoors and take nucleic acid tests following the requirements.”[3] They should report any physical abnormalities during medical observation and seek medical attention as required, the commission said Global times reported. The authorities also postponed a marathon which was conducted every year by more than 20,000 participants and prescribed 21 days quarantine for foreign arrivals. The authorities asked all the companies to cancel any conferences unless they are essential and suggested taking steps to reduce the public interaction as much as possible, they also said that individuals and companies who hold unnecessary events will be held responsible for their actions.
At a press conference held on November 17th 2021 in Beijing, Zhou Weimin, an official with the Beijing municipal bureau of culture and tourism, “ordered the strengthening of COVID-19 prevention and control measures at cultural and entertainment sites in the city.”[4] Authorities in Beijing have ordered local cultural and entertainment sites, including performance venues and internet cafes, to run at 75 per cent visitor capacity for COVID-19 control.The NHC also gave instructions to its citizens “If you have fever, cough and other symptoms, please do not have meals together or participate in parties, go to the fever clinic of a nearby hospital as soon as possible, do not take medicine on your own, so as not to delay the treatment opportunity.”
According to Beijing's epidemic prevention regulations, “travellers are required to provide the negative result of a nucleic acid test taken within 48 hours and show the green health code on the Beijing Health Kit when entering or returning to Beijing by railway, road or air, for travellers by the road who do not have a negative nucleic acid test result, Beijing police, together with other relevant departments, have set up nucleic acid testing sites at the service areas near Beijing of the 13 expressways connected to Beijing.”[5]
As always China is using very high-end technological solutions to deal with the upcoming problems. “Robots have been dispatched to help with epidemic prevention and control at Wukesong Sports Centre, where the ice hockey competition for the upcoming Winter Olympics will take place.”[6] By spraying atomized mist on the ground. For smaller areas, they are using robots that carry out disinfection with ultraviolet rays, which is said to be more effective. some robots with a contactless hand disinfection device on their head. And the robots can also walk up to people who are not wearing masks and warn them to wear the mask.
Figure 1 JHU CSS Covid 19 data
From the above data, we can see that the number of new covid-19 cases is coming to stabilize and maintaining many days with zero cases reported in the city. This graph is appearing optimistic as there is no massive surge but China has a reproductive rate(the chance of one patient infecting the other) or R factor of 1.6 which is very high than all the other superpowers where Russia stands with 1.1 India with 0.84 and the USA with 0.96. this higher R factor indicates that any new cases can lead to fast multiplying of the cases, so China is not entirely out of the woods yet but the Beijing seems to be doing fine with its state of the art infrastructure, and strict compliance to the covid 19 restrictions.
On June 19 2021 China announced then it has administered 1 billion vaccines doses in the country, But the advocacy of the do accents used in China come to question, according to WHO the Sino-pharma COVID-19 vaccine is 79 per cent efficient, “A large phase 3 trial in Brazil showed that two doses, administered at an interval of 14 days, had an efficacy of 51% against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, 100 per cent against severe COVID-19, and 100 per cent against hospitalization starting 14 days after receiving the second dose.”[7]. The appearance of new variants is a cause for concern as the effectiveness of the vaccines distributed in China against these new variants is unknown and it is not 100 per cent proven that the vaccines are as effective on the new variant as they were on the old variant.
As Beijing is going to host the winter Olympics 2022 in February, the city needs to maintain its zero-tolerance policy strictly to avoid any massive spreads before the event, and the city is also holding its annual legislative session where the lawmakers around the country will gather, china has achieved zero tolerance even after being the epicentre of the outbreak, which most of the developed countries failed to achieve, but any further outbreaks will leave most of the effort in vain. Any failure in containing the current outbreak can lead to a medical and political blow to China.
Notes
[1] https://english.alarabiya.net/coronavirus/2021/10/22/China-s-Beijing-launches-new-mass-testing-after-new-COVID-19-cases-found
[2] https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211022-beijing-launches-new-mass-testing-wave-after-four-covid-cases-found
[3] Beijing Residents Asked to Delay Return to The Capital City Amid Covid Surge Available at https://www.india.com/travel/articles/beijing-china-residents-asked-to-delay-return-amid-covid-cases-surge-travel-news-5079242/
[4] Beijing Imposes Capacity Limit on Cultural, Entertainment Sites Source: Xinhua | 2021-11-18 Availbale at http://english.beijing.gov.cn/latest/news/202111/t20211118_2539579.html
[5] Q&As on the Latest Entry Control Policy of Beijing Source: english.beijing.gov.cn | 2021-11-19 Available at http://english.beijing.gov.cn/specials/COVID19/latest/202111/t20211119_2540681.html
[6] Robots to Offer Helping Hand in Olympic Epidemic Control Source: beijing2022 | 2021-11-19 Available at http://english.beijing.gov.cn/beijing2022/news/202111/t20211119_2540387.html
[7] The Sinovac-CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine: What you need to know
2 September 2021 https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/the-sinovac-covid-19-vaccine-what-you-need-to-know
Pic Courtesy-Chastagner Thierry at unsplash.com
(The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent views of CESCUBE.)
