Steep spike in COVID in China, two years since Pandemic announced by WHO

By Deandrea Hamilton

Editor

#China, March 12, 2022 – One hundred neighbourhoods in Shanghai, China have been labelled medium to high risk as a result of a fresh wave of COVID.  The National Health Commission reported to media that on Thursday, 1,100 new cases of the virus had been detected; it has led to the city of Changchun, in northeastern China to lockdown.

After Friday, the new infections surged to 1,500 in a country which has not seen these kinds of numbers in two years.  The figures have rattled China and its zero-Covid strategies are dashed.

The grim news came two years to the day, the World Health Organization announced that we were in a Pandemic, caused by the then newly discovered, deadly, debilitating, highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 or Coronavirus; the virus we now call Covid-19.

In Shanghai, it is said that schools have been shut, so have restaurants, theatres and other public spots in the down town area.

While the Chinese government has advised that the provinces be selective in how to manage the contagion, Changchun is taking no chances and has locked down the city, which is home to 9 million people.

Media reports inform that most of those found with Covid-19 were non symptomatic.  The large majority, said Health Officials, are vaccinated and have contracted the Omicron strain of the virus.

Delta has also been detected in many of those cases.

What has triggered this extreme measure is the sharp, sudden spike from 60 cases two weeks ago, to just over 100 cases a week ago to now, 1,100 new infections in one day. There is a high testing rate, says the National Health Commission, these results are from 17 to 30 of China’s provinces.

China reports that 87 per cent of its people are vaccinated for COVID; 40 per cent are boosted.