China gave up its strict corona policy a few weeks ago. As a result, the number of infections and deaths skyrocketed. The authorities are now reporting that the capital has been infected. Antibody tests are said to support the claim.
According to its authorities, China’s capital Beijing has “provisionally achieved herd immunity”. The wave of corona infections “has already reached its peak and is coming to an end,” the Beijing News newspaper quoted Vice Director of the Beijing Disease Control Agency Wang Quanyi as saying. In Beijing there are currently only “sporadic cases of infection” and the risk of infection is “relatively low”.
The number of people being treated for flu-like symptoms in Beijing’s major hospitals fell by more than 40 percent between Jan. 23 and Jan. 29 compared to the previous week, the newspaper reported, citing official figures. A nationwide decline in the number of infections suggests that the end of the Lunar New Year holiday and the associated return of many people to Beijing will “not have too much of an impact,” said Wang.
He announced that thousands of residents would be tested for antibodies in February and March. This investigation aims to “comprehensively record” the number of infections in Beijing and provide “indications for the allocation of resources in the future”. In mid-December, the Chinese government abruptly abandoned its years-long strict zero-Covid policy. The number of infections increased explosively.
Experts consider the number of victims given by China’s authorities to be far too low. In December, Chinese authorities changed the way they counted corona deaths. Only people suffering from Covid-19 who died directly from respiratory failure are still counted as corona deaths. As a result, many deaths are no longer included in the corona statistics.
However, there are some signs that the epidemic in China is abating. According to the authorities, the number of daily deaths recorded in the past week fell by almost 80 percent compared to the beginning of January.
