Beijing – As much of the world tries to return to something resembling normalcy, draconian coronavirus measures imposed as part of China’s so-called “dynamic zero COVID” policy seem to make all facets of daily life bigger by the simplest. Now, even children who want to play outdoors in Beijing have to be free of the virus.
An announcement posted online Tuesday by the government company that manages Beijing’s public parks said children over the age of 3 would now have to test negative for PCR within the last 72 hours to use the playgrounds. Adults have long faced the need to use the parks, but especially with Beijing’s kindergartens closed since last April, the new restriction will be a headache for many parents.
In major mainland Chinese cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, normal COVID verification is part of everyday life. The “negative result of the 72-hour check” is required not only to enter the parks, but also to use any closed and shared areas: everything from cinemas to supermarkets and work buildings. No one can even check out without a new check.
The effects of nationally identified COVID tests are stored on an official smartphone app to be shown to security officials. Seniors and others who don’t have access to trendy smartphones will need to provide a valid national ID card and then face other verification measures before entering the parks, or just about anything else.
The global financial services organization Nomura has estimated that 814 million people in China, more than double the overall population of the United States, want to get tested just to get on with their daily lives.
Frequent and localized mass testing campaigns have been implemented as soon as outbreaks occur to identify and isolate cases, however, the government is now addressing the sustainability of this tactic.
The national health insurance fund’s regulator has called on local governments to fund their own “standardized mass screening,” of cash intended to be set aside for other purposes.
With thousands of mobile phone control sites now dotting Chinese cities, environmental impact considerations are also being developed in the mass control approach.
“The amount of medical waste generated [is] on a scale virtually never seen in human history,” Li Yifei, an environmental expert at New York University in Shanghai, recently told French news agency AFP.