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The China News Database was last updated at 01:50PM on November 9, 2023.
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3,450 articles matching the search query.
新华述评：坚持“动态清零”不放松-新华网
State news agency Xinhua reaffirmed China’s commitment to COVID zero in an editorial released on March 30, appearing to end speculation that the country will shift its long-standing strategy of mass lockdowns, testing, and contact tracing to tackle the widespread Omicron outbreak.
Meanwhile, weary Shanghai residents are panic-buying as the city struggles to curb the economic fallout over its largest lockdown since the start of the pandemic.
Shanghai COVID lockdown holds up more than a dozen IPOs
At least 16 companies have pushed back their planned initial public offerings on Shanghai’s tech-focused STAR market and Shenzhen’s ChiNext bourse over the latest lockdowns. The companies include device maker Nanjing Cigu Technology and auto supplier Zhejiang Sling Automobile Bearing.
China’s PBOC Vows to Boost Confidence, Support Economy in Monetary Policy
In a sign of how worried Beijing is about the slowing economy, China’s central bank promised “to boost confidence and provide more effective support to the economy, amid mounting growth pressure from the country’s worst COVID outbreak since Wuhan.”
Meanwhile, five of China’s biggest banks said “the country’s lenders face multiple headwinds this year that include the pandemic, global politics and domestic turmoil in the real estate industry.” To make matters worse, Shanghai has gone into COVID-19 lockdown.
Foxconn 'basically' resumes normal operations in China's Shenzhen
Foxconn has resumed some of its operations in Shenzhen after the city emerged from lockdown last week following disruptions caused by COVID-19 outbreaks, per Nikkei Asia.
China reports first COVID-19 deaths in more than a year
China reported its first COVID deaths in over a year, as challenges mount on the nation’s COVID-zero policy. The two deaths recorded in northeastern Jilin Province on March 19 bring the country’s coronavirus death toll to 4,638. (The death toll in the U.S. stands at 970,082 today.)
More than 4,000 new infections were reported across China on Sunday, with two thirds in Jilin Province. Shenzhen has eased its lockdown restrictions, citing control over the outbreak. Widely used inactivated shots have been updated to fight up to three variants, said Zhèng Zhōngwěi 郑忠伟, an official who oversees COVID vaccine development at the National Health Commission.
《新型冠状病毒肺炎诊疗方案（试行第九版）》修订要点_部门政务_中国政府网
China added Paxlovid to the country’s COVID treatment list, authorities announced this week, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant challenges the nation’s COVID-zero policy. Regulators approved the Pfizer pill last month for emergency use.
China Updates Quarantine Rules, Treatments for COVID-19 Patients
China has updated its rules on COVID-19 after almost a year, relaxing quarantine and hospital admission policies for those who test positive for the virus, as Omicron challenges the nation’s strict COVID-zero policy.
Health officials reported 3,054 domestic coronavirus cases on Wednesday, lower than the 5,154 local infections — the country’s largest daily toll since 2020 — logged the day before.
Covid in China: Shanghai Urges Bankers to Work From Home, Rules Out Lockdown
Shanghai has become the latest test for China’s COVID-zero policies, with a record 758 new cases on Sunday (734 asymptomatic), double the cases from two days earlier. Large segments of the city have been locked down, classes have moved online, and incoming flights have been rerouted. Last week, the city ruled out imposing a broad stay-at-home order, but officials said on Monday that some areas will remain locked down.
Shanghai Disney Resort has also temporarily shut down due to COVID concerns.
COVID-19 cases more than double in China's growing outbreak
China’s COVID-19 cases more than doubled in a day, with 3,507 new local identified cases in the latest 24-hour period, up from 1,337 a day earlier.
Shanghai has “no plan” to go into complete lockdown, the government said on Tuesday. However, the city has diverted more than 100 international flights and locked down the Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital on March 6 over an “abnormal” nucleic acid test. Beijing has suspended in-person classes for after-school training institutions, authorities said on Monday, after reports of five confirmed new cases, including two students. New lockdowns and pandemic restrictions have stymied operations for suppliers to Toyota, Volkswagen, and Apple, and threaten to disrupt global supply chains.Yesterday on SupChina: Major cities lock down as Omicron breaks through China’s defenses.
Key outcomes of the 2022 Two Sessions - Trivium China - Policy Intelligence
Read about the key takeaways from the Two Sessions, China’s biggest annual political gathering, which wrapped up on Friday. Trivium notes the “smorgasbord” of policy issues from the 5.5% GDP growth target for this year, food and energy security, COVID management, and more.
Hong Kong leader plans to reopen city only after controlling latest COVID outbreak
Meanwhile, Hong Kong hunkers down, after leader Carrie Lam said any plans to reopen the city will happen only after the government controls its deepening COVID outbreak.
Earlier on SupChina: Hong Kong intensifies COVID control measures amid Omicron wave, pushing residents to the brink.
Zhang Wenhong: How to Beat Covid-19 With a Smarter Zero-Covid Policy
Another signal that China may readjust COVID zero: Zhāng Wénhóng 张文宏, a Chinese doctor and Beijing’s trusted voice on COVID-19, says that the pandemic has reached a “new stage” and that China must “avoid a single approach aimed at eliminating all cases at the cost of normal life.”
Meanwhile, Shanghai is testing tens of thousands of people, delaying events, and shutting some public venues amid a rising wave of local symptomless cases.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Deaths
Hong Kong now has the world’s highest COVID death rate as of yesterday, with a seven-day rolling average of confirmed COVID-19 deaths at 29.18 per 1 million people, more than six times that of the U.S.’s 4.11 per 1 million people, per a global chart run by Oxford-based project Our World in Data.
China Meheco Confirms Pfizer Talks on Selling Paxlovid in China
Rumors are circulating that China Meheco Corp., a state-owned pharma manufacturer, is in talks with Pfizer to commercialize Paxlovid, a COVID-19 treatment, in China. The firm’s stock shot up 50% this past week, “but the discussions are still at an early stage,” the state-owned pharmaceutical company said on Monday. It did not mention Pfizer by name, per Bloomberg.
Earlier on SupChina: China clears Pfizer’s COVID pill.
China Reports Most COVID-19 Cases Since Early Days of Pandemic
China reported the highest daily COVID tally since the start of the pandemic, with a total of 526 cases on Sunday scattered across the country. Experts have suggested “a new stage of COVID-19 control” as the Omicron surge challenges the nation’s strict COVID-zero policy.
Shanghai, which had a total of 48 local cases, launched mass testing in residential neighborhoods with reported infections.
Hong Kong reports record cases; movements may be restricted
Hong Kong has nearly as many new COVID cases as the entire U.S., with a new daily record of 55,353 new infections in the Chinese territory on March 2, compared with 58,986 recorded in America yesterday.
Poor residents are “forced to choose between infecting their families or sleeping outdoors,” per the New York Times. Citizens are also panic-buying groceries in fear of another possible lockdown later this month, despite assurances from authorities that the city’s supplies are stable.
Yang Liu on Twitter
Will China shift from COVID zero? Zēng Guāng 曾光, the former chief epidemiologist of China’s CDC, signaled a change that the policy “will not remain forever” and that co-existing with the virus is a long-term goal, state-backed Xinhua reporter Yang Liu said on Twitter.
Earlier on SupChina: China clears Pfizer’s COVID pill.
Hong Kong Pharmacies Run Out of Flu Meds Amid Panic Buying
Hongkongers are panic-buying cold and flu medication, Bloomberg reports, while a number of other residents scramble to figure a way out amid the city’s most recent COVID outbreak. The surge in cases poses an even greater threat to Hong Kong’s vulnerable elderly population, where “more than 200 people have died this month from COVID, many of whom were over 70 and unvaccinated.”
Last week on SupChina: Hong Kong intensifies COVID control measures amid Omicron wave, pushing residents to the brink.
Deadly link between sharp emissions fall and China’s record 2020 rains
A sudden drop in air pollutants was linked to China’s record-breaking rainfall in 2020, according to a study by Nature Communications. The drop, caused by industry shutdown from the COVID-19 pandemic, was a major contributor to one-third of the extreme rains that led to mass flooding, killing more than 150 and affecting 55 million people.
China Planning Post Covid-Zero Policy; 71 Cases in Eight Provinces Monday
Is there light at the end of China’s COVID-zero tunnel? Wú Zūnyǒu 吳尊友, the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, seems to think so, after he said he was cautiously optimistic that the pandemic will end this year.
According to Wu, Chinese health officials are developing an approach that is “neither the current ‘zero cases’ policy nor laissez-faire” to put “people first and life first.”See also last week on SupChina: China clears Pfizer’s COVID pill.
