WITH crowded dance floors and poolside parties, as the world suffered from rising Covid cases, China unlocks and boasts of having beaten the virus.
Few places have been more defended than Wuhan, the “ground zero” of the virus, from which emerged apocalyptic photographs of booming hospitals and other people collapsing in the streets in early 2020.
Months later, as Britain and the rest of the world continued to grapple with the terrible effects of the virus, China showed how well it had beaten Covid.
Famous images showed other people living life as if there was no fatal virus sweeping the world, and the city claimed it had no new local cases.
Chinese clubbers were observed filling a nightclub just as the wave began sweeping the UK before the incredibly dark winter two years ago.
And yet, now, as the UK reports a completely widespread post-pandemic life, Wuhan has again been locked down with more than 200 million more people in 31 cities in China.
China removed the cause of the lockdown after only a few new cases, between just 20 and 25 per day, adding 240 in the past two weeks.
But that was enough to tip the balance, as another 800,000 people in one district were ordered to stay home until at least Oct. 30.
And it’s not the first time, as the city was also shut down in July amid repeated instant closures across China.
Police dressed in hazmat suits and wielding device guns brutally enforced some of the world’s strictest rules.
Quarantine camps, food shortages, seizure of people’s homes, tags on Covid patients, and drones tracking the streets have all been noticed across China.
And yet, the number of cases in China is reported to have been relatively low during the pandemic.
The maximum they have suffered on February 12, 2020, with 14,108 new instances, and the maximum they faced this year 5,659 on April 29.
Meanwhile, Britain recorded an absolute number of cases of 275,647 on January 5, 2022, which is higher than what China claims is its absolute number of cases over the past 1031 days of 258,398.
And yet, the UK has felt the need to impose large-scale restrictions since mid-2021.
China’s draconian reaction to the virus has raised the specter of a return to the future for higher cases around the world as we approach the winter months.
But the West has implemented much more effective vaccination programs, making countries like Britain more equipped to deal with any spike in infections.
The architect of the nation’s strict measures is Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who recently appointed “Emperor for Life,” while pursuing policies dubbed “Covid Zero. “
China appears to be pursuing a national policy of self-isolation, as the Communist Party has made Covid Zero its flagship plan.
They have misjudged the overall scenario and are stepping out of their own zone of convenience.
Xi doubled down on his policy in a recent speech and vowed that all measures should be maintained for the foreseeable future.
He said his plans to save people’s lives.
China has not recorded a single death from covid since May, and from April 2020 to April 2022, it recorded six deaths.
Is this a sign of the good fortune of Xi’s policies or a sign of the Chinese state’s overreaction?
Wuhan has been the guinea pig, while China has pioneered the concept of “lockdowns”: with the 76-day shutdown, the trend continued in cities from London to New York to Melbourne.
Xi’s refusal to abandon his plan has been blamed for a deep economic situation and stoking the few open unrest in China.
Covid Zero has been described in some reports as a “trap of its creation” for the Communist Party.
Virologist Jin Dongyan of the University of Hong Kong told The Washington Post, “If they open now, there will be a primary outbreak.
“However, even if they don’t open, sooner or later a primary outbreak will occur somewhere. “
The scientists added that the technique is “not sustainable” and that “someone made the judgment. “
“They have misjudged the scenario in the world and cannot leave their own zone of convenience,” he said.
Wuhan, the site of the world’s first covid outbreak: sounded the alarm at the World Health Organization (WHO) on December 31, 2019.
The outbreak then morphed into a global pandemic that has killed more than 6. 5 million people and inflamed 635 million.
It has been reported that the most recent cases of Covid in Wuhan could have been linked to the sale of pork.
And that fits with the theory that it would possibly have first emerged from the now-notorious Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan.
The first cases of the virus headed to the rainy market in central Wuhan, which was full of live animals for sale.
It is recommended that the virus has jumped from one species to another before mutating to infect humans.
However, some have cast serious doubt on this theory, pointing the finger at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
WIV harbored bat-based coronaviruses, and it was reported that the infection would likely have escaped or been carried out through a poor health worker.
China has angrily denied those allegations, and the true origins of the virus remain unknown.
“I don’t know what to do. If we can still live like this, I guess that’s what we’ll do,” a Wuhan resident told Reuters.
“When we see those reports about Covid, we feel a little numb now. We feel numb from all this.
“We are getting more and more numb. “
Wuhan isn’t the only new lockdown in China: Guangzhou was also cordoned off.
People have been ordered to stay home in areas that are considered high risk of a Covid resurgence.
Meanwhile, in Xining, food shortages and surgesmen have been reported.
Other recent Covid outbreaks in China have made the cities of Datong and Xi’an subject to new measures.
The charm of Beijing Universal Studios Resort was shut down due to a single woman’s Covid case, and there were viral cases at a factory in Zhengzhou that makes iPhones.
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