On Monday, Shijiazhuang, the city that was recently rumored to be the ‘test case’ for the country easing its punishing Covid Zero policy, told its 11 million residents to stay home for the next five days, forbidding those who live in ‘high risk’ areas to leave. Cases surged over the weekend, with Sunday seeing 641 new infections.
Shijiazhuang’s six major districts will undergo a mass testing exercise, all in-person classes at primary and middle schools have been suspended, and university students will not be allowed to leave campuses as universities will be put in closed loops.
This comes just a week after the city’s officials brushed off rumors that it was being used as a pilot zone for easing virus restrictions. The city was following China’s new policy adjustment, which was released in the form of a 20-point playbook. It instructed officials to stop mass testing in most areas and to only do city-wide tests if the source of the infection is unknown.
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The new guidelines were introduced with officials emphasizing that they were not relaxing rules, but rather refining them, or “doing a better job in our epidemic prevention, control, and disposal work in a more precise and scientific manner.”
But barely two weeks into the updated measures and the country’s top leaders are already worried that they may have ‘over-relaxed’ the restrictions. On Monday, the National Health Commission released a guide to the implementation of the 20 measures.
The guidelines include a directive that large cities with over 10 million residents should undertake mass testing at a district level when at risk of growing outbreaks. So-called high-risk areas will also be required to take one round of mass PCR testing after five days of zero new infections before they can be reclassified as low-risk.
The country also saw its first Covid-related death in six months on Saturday, followed by two more on Sunday. All fatalities were recorded in Beijing. The capital reported 962 new infections on Monday, up from 621 a day earlier. The National Health Commission on Sunday reported 26,824 local infections across the country in the previous 24 hours, a figure that’s closing in on April’s peaks.
“It feels like one step forward, two steps back,” Willer Chen, an analyst at Forsyth Barr Asia Ltd told Bloomberg on the subject of the possibility of China finally reopening. “The market had been too optimistic.”
Across Asia, share markets dropped on Monday, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprises Index falling as much as 3.7%, for the fourth session.
Information for this briefing was found via Bloomberg, The Guardian, and the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
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