The Chinese face great challenges after setting aside zero vision. Now the infection numbers are increasing.
Last week, Chinese people could once again go to the park, shop at the mall, and pass through security at an airport without a negative corona test. But not everything was rosy after China eased the measures.
A new wave of corona infection among the population has led to hoarding. Many Chinese worry about what might happen if the country is hit by another big wave of infections. Painkillers, masks, coronavirus tests and canned peaches are now being removed from store shelves.
– I’m ready, but I still need canned peaches, one person writes on social media China Daily.
Why do the Chinese store peaches?
Peach hoarding
Canned peaches should be rich in vitamin C and used in home medicine, he writes BBC.
It’s not just peaches that the Chinese stock up on. Other products containing vitamin C are also being pulled off store shelves. Something is completely sold out. This applies, among other things, to lemons, lemon tea, lemon desserts, and lemon-flavored drinks, the site writes the paper On Weibo, a social network.
Rumors abound on social media in China that vitamin C reduces symptoms of COVID-19 China Daily. However, many doctors warn people not to take too much vitamin C.
One of the largest packaged food manufacturers in the country is telling people to stop stocking up on peaches. They say that the fruit has no effect on the virus.
They add that there are enough peaches for everyone. And he writes that there is no need to hoard CNN.
People’s Daily, called Folkets dagblad in Norwegian, has tried to stop hoarding. In a long post on Weibo, they tell people not to hoard. They also write that prunes have no effect.
A new wave of infection
Even after reopening, there are empty streets and shopping malls in the capital, Beijing. Not because of softening, but because of a new wave of infection. On Wednesday, the Chinese authorities announced that they had recorded 2,249 cases of coronavirus symptoms across the country. 20 percent can be traced back to the capital, Beijing. There are many indications that the number is much higher, depending on CNN.
The authorities in Beijing have now appealed to residents not to hoard. They state that the city is under severe pressure as a result of hoarding painkillers and medicines. They ask residents to stop hoarding and not to contact health services if they are not showing symptoms.
After taking very strict measures regarding Corona, the authorities eased the measures at the beginning of December. For nearly three years, the country had zero vision. They eventually gave it up.
After the reopening, infections spiked.
There were long lines at hospitals and emergency departments. In some places, people have to stand in lines for five to six hours. Hospitals will also struggle to separate people with COVID-19 from other patients, according to news agency DPA.
Give up
The Chinese authorities have now given up on getting a full overview of all those infected. On Wednesday, the authorities said they would stop including Asymptomatic infectionsAsymptomatic infectionsAsymptomatic means asymptomatic and symptom-free. Diseases and infections are called asymptomatic if the patient has no symptoms. in their daily numbers.
– Authorities said on Wednesday that it is impossible to come up with an exact number.
Fewer people have been infected with covid-19 and a less effective vaccine against the omicron variant are two reasons why scientists believe the virus can now spread very quickly in China.
– The current variants will spread faster in China than in other parts of the world, as they have a certain immunity from previous waves of the Omicron variant, epidemiology researcher Ben Cowling tells CNN.
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