Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/SHANGHAI: Authorities in Shanghai have urged residents to stay at home this weekend, hoping for a more relaxed Christmas in the country’s most populous city as COVID-19 rages across the country after tough curbs were lifted.
A branch of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission on Saturday recommended young people in particular, to avoid crowded gatherings due to the ease with which the coronavirus spreads and the low temperatures. Christmas is not traditionally observed in China as young couples and some families do spend the holiday together.
Shanghai Omicron virus
The Omicron version has risen in popularity in the weeks since the authorities abruptly dropped its zero-COVID policy, easing tight testing criteria and travel restrictions as China becomes the final major country to accept the virus.
While many people appreciated the relief, families and the healthcare system were unprepared for the subsequent outbreak of illnesses. Hospitals are vying for beds and blood, pharmacies for drugs, and government agencies are racing to create clinics.
An extravagant shopping district along Nanjing West Road in Shanghai regularly hosts a sizable Christmas-themed market, and businesses like restaurants and shops run specials to attract customers. But Omicron’s spread is dampening the joy.
According to Jacqueline Mocatta, a worker in the hospitality sector, many Shanghai restaurants have cancelled Christmas parties that were typically held for regulars, and hotels have limited reservations as a result of staff shortages.
Given our staffing levels and the fact that the majority of our team members are currently ill, there is a limit to the number of customers we can accept, she added.
Skepticism About Official Data
People lamented staying inside on social media because the majority of their friends had COVID positive tests. Someone posted on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform, “I originally planned to go to Shanghai for Christmas but now I can only lie in bed.” According to official statistics, there are probably 5,000 fatalities and more than a million infections per day in China, according to Airfinity, a British health data company.
On Saturday, the national health authority of China reported 4,128 symptomatic COVID-19 infections per day and the fourth day without a fatality. According to estimates from the top health authority within the federal government, as many as 37 million people may have contracted COVID on a single day this past week, according to a report from Bloomberg News on Friday.
The emergency hotline in Taiyuan, in the province of Shanxi in the north, was receiving more than 4,000 calls per day, according to local media on Saturday. Authorities in Taiyuan advised locals to use the hotline only in cases of medical emergencies and noted that advice regarding COVID “does not fall within the scope of the hotline.” According to a Qingdao health official, the port city sees about 500,000 infections every day, according to news reports on Friday.
The media reported on Friday that the regional blood repository in Wuhan, the central city where COVID first surfaced three years ago, had just 4,000 units, or enough to last two days. People were urged to “roll up their sleeves and donate blood,” according to the repository.
