The Chinese regime is so crippled by Covid that sons must burn the bodies of their fathers outside blocks of flats in its leading cities
The country would do well to think several times before committing to such gigantic expenditure in the uncertain future
While mobility still remains well below pre-pandemic levels, the quick rebound in activity in cities like Beijing - where the outbreak was most severe - suggests the economy could recover faster
Uncertainty over the true scale of infections without reliable official figures is fueling concern that the rapid spread of the virus could lead to the emergence of new variants
The data is considered "no longer necessary" as the country moves to a phase of living with the virus with the help of vaccines and medicines
Beijing will begin distributing Pfizers Covid 19 drug Paxlovid to the citys community health centres in the coming days, state media reported on Monday
The commission didn't provide a reason for the change in policy, but said that the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention will release Covid-related info for studies and reference
Some 37 million people in China may have been infected with C-19 on a single day this week, as Beijing discontinued restrictions that had contained the virus since the start of the pandemic
Yao Ruyan paced frantically outside the fever clinic of a county hospital in China's industrial Hebei province, 70 kilometres (43 miles) southwest of Beijing. Her mother-in-law had COVID-19 and needed urgent medical care, but all hospitals nearby were full. They say there's no beds here, she barked into her phone. As China grapples with its first-ever national COVID-19 wave, emergency wards in small cities and towns southwest of Beijing are overwhelmed. Intensive care units are turning away ambulances, relatives of sick people are searching for open beds, and patients are slumped on benches in hospital corridors and lying on floors for a lack of beds. Yao's elderly mother-in-law had fallen ill a week ago. They went first to a local hospital, where lung scans showed signs of pneumonia. But the hospital couldn't handle COVID-19 cases, Yao was told. She was told to go to hospitals in adjacent counties. As Yao and her husband drove from hospital to hospital, they found all the wards
Health experts noted that multiple reasons have led to a rise of severe Covid cases in Beijing, as north China generally sees a greater occurrence of respiratory infectious diseases in winter times.
China ceased its strict zero-Covid policy in November and since then, the country has seen a spike and the spread has been faster than anticipated
While China has previously built out disputed reefs, islands in the area, the West presented images of what they called the first known instances of a nation doing so on the territory
The US is sending a delegation led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing early in the new year
Despite acknowledging the security challenges posed by China, White House official John Kirby has stated that Washington doesn't want to see a conflict with Beijing
Outside a funeral home in eastern Beijing, dozens of people were bundled up in parkas and hats against the freezing temperatures Friday evening as workers in full protective suits wheeled out coffins one by one. When an employee with a clipboard shouted the name of the dead, a relative trundled up to the coffin to examine the body. One of the relatives told The Associated Press their loved one had been infected with COVID-19. Deaths linked to the coronavirus are appearing in Beijing after weeks of China reporting no fatalities, even as the country is seeing a surge of cases. That surge comes as the government last week dramatically eased some of the world's strictest COVID-19 containment measures. On Wednesday, the government said it would stop reporting asymptomatic COVID-19 cases since they've become impossible to track with mass testing no longer required. That halt in reporting made it unclear how fast the virus is spreading. Social media posts, business closures and other ...
China started dismantling its zero-tolerance approach to eliminating Covid-19 last week. It no longer sends infected people to quarantine camps, and eased travel requirements
Anecdotal evidence suggests that many businesses have been forced to close as infected workers quarantine at home while many other people are deciding not to go out
Facing a surge in COVID-19 cases, China is setting up more intensive care facilities and trying to strengthen hospitals as Beijing rolls back anti-virus controls that confined millions of people to their homes, crushed economic growth and set off protests. President Xi Jinping's government is officially committed to stopping virus transmission, the last major country to try. But the latest moves suggest the ruling Communist Party will tolerate more cases without quarantines or shutting down travel or businesses as it winds down its zero-COVID strategy. A Cabinet meeting called Thursday for full mobilisation of hospitals including adding staff to ensure their combat effectiveness and increasing drug supplies, according to state media. Officials were told to keep track of the health of everyone in their area aged 65 and older. It isn't clear how much infection numbers have increased since Beijing last week ended mandatory testing as often as once a day in many areas. But interviews an
Amid reports of panic buying of fever medicine, a financial news outlet, citing third-party data, said the average daily sales volume of home test kits had risen more than 400 times versus November
About 80 to 90% of the Chinese population may eventually be infected with the virus