Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
Lockdown was imposed in Guangzhou, one of the largest metropolitan cities in China in the last week of October 2022 amid the rising COVID-19 cases. Image Source: IANS
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), China has reported 93,68,637 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 29,426 deaths between 3 January 2020 and 16 November 2022. As of 1 October 2022, a total of 3,457,953,632 vaccine doses have been administered in the country.
Several hit the streets in Guangzhou, China to protest against the lockdown and restrictions imposed by the authorities in wake of increasing cases of COVID-19. Videos of numerous demonstrators chanting slogans and crowding the streets have gone viral on different social media platforms. The protest turned violent when people refused to go to the quarantine centre. The security forces also led a heavy crackdown on the protesters. Lockdown was imposed in Guangzhou, one of the largest metropolitan cities in China in the last week of October 2022 amid the rising COVID-19 cases. Guangzhou, which has a population of around 19 million, reported 3,653 new locally transmitted cases, which is a record high for the city.
The protesters, mainly comprising migrant workers, complained about the shortage of food and other basic amenities during the three week-long strict lockdown. In Guangzhou’s Haizhu district, 1.8 million people were ordered to stay at home and undergo daily testing. The travel was restricted and schools were ordered to conduct online classes. The local authorities had put up heavy barricades around the neighbourhoods with positive patients. More than dozen neighbourhoods in Guangzhou are still under lockdown and the local authorities have not provided any date for lifting the lockdowns.
Considering the protests against the lockdowns imposed in different parts of China due to rise in the COVID-19 cases, India Tracker takes a look at the deteriorating COVID-19 situation in the country.
Sharp increase in COVID numbers since October
China has been witnessing a sharp increase in the number of daily COVID-19 cases since mid-October. China reported 39,974 cases of coronavirus on 16 November 2022. It was in April 2022 that the country had witnessed a wave of COVID-19 cases with daily number of cases surging to 29,000. In spite of stringent lockdowns and other preventive measures, the COVID-19 infections in China have touched a new peak of 39,000 on 16 November. In the span of 10 days (6 November 2022-16 November 2022), number of active COVID-19 cases in China surged massively from 549 to 39,974.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), China has reported 93,68,637 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 29,426 deaths between 3 January 2020 and 16 November 2022. As of 1 October 2022, a total of 3,457,953,632 vaccine doses have been administered in the country. The highest number of deaths in a single day (1,290) were reported on 18 April 2020. China reported 90,656 cases on 20 May 2022, the highest number of new cases recorded in a day. This was during the Shanghai COVID-19 outbreak 2022. The outbreak caused by the Omicron variant began on 28 February 2022 and ended on 7 August 2022. To contain the spread and uphold the zero-COVID policy, local authorities responded with mass testing and strict lockdowns in the city. China’s zero-COVID policy was criticised by international organisations like WHO. In spite of such a strict policy, the COVID-19 cases in China continue to rise.
The chart below shows the number of daily COVID-19 cases in China from 1 November to 16 November.
Source: Media Reports
The lowest number of cases (549) was reported on 6 November while the highest number of new cases (39,974) were reported on 16 November. Interestingly, number of active COVID cases reported on 16 November is twice the number of cases reported on 15 November.
As the chart shows, there has not been a constant increase in the number of new cases. There was a drop in new cases from 24,261 on 12 November to 1,635 on 13 November.
Latest reports suggest that despite a surge in daily cases, there has been a decrease in COVID-19 testing. Despite the rise in cases, the local administration in China’s capital removed the testing booths from streets. This created a chaos as people had to stand in long queues outside shopping malls and offices as a negative RT-PCR is still required for entry. China's National Health Commission (NHC) marked that the changes did not amount to "relaxing prevention and control, let alone opening up", but were instead designed to adapt to a changing COVID situation.
Various reports have noted that China has been under-reporting the number of deaths due to COVID-19. Reports said that if a person died due to COVID-19 but already had a chronic ailment at the time, such as cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, Chinese hospitals would not identify the cause of death as COVID-19 but the chronic illness instead. However, majority of the restrictions are still in effect despite the minor changes. Even as the rest of the world has advanced, China’s President Xi Jingping has insisted on maintaining a strict zero-Covid policy that involves lockdowns and restrictions on movement of people.
