Pushed through the fast-spreading Omicron variant, instances in the country reached 29,157 on Wednesday.
Images of crowds without face masks at the World Cup in Qatar have sparked anger in China, where others exhausted by harsh Covid-19 restrictions are wondering about their government’s exceptional strategy as the rest of the world lives with the virus.
China is the latest major economy still looking to stop the nationwide spread of Covid-19, and has continued to shut down entire cities, cordon off neighborhoods and impose mandatory measures on millions of people.
Powered through the fast-spreading Omicron variant, cases in the country reached 29,157 on Wednesday, a low point compared to the maximum of other countries still at the national record set earlier this year.
According to Nomura analysts, the government placed more than a quarter of China’s population in some form of lockdown on Tuesday, in contrast to the noisy World Cup crowds that angered many Chinese social media users.
“Some other people watch World Cup matches without masks, some have been locked in their homes for a month, locked on campus for two months without even walking out the door,” one Guangdong user said on Twitter, as Weibo wrote on Wednesday.
“Who stole my life? I’ll say anything.
Another Weibo user from Shaanxi province said he was “disappointed” with his country.
“The World Cup has allowed most Chinese people to see the real scenario and care about the motherland’s economy and their own youth,” the user wrote.
An open letter questioning the country’s Covid-19 policies and wondering whether China “is on the same planet” as Qatar spread on Tuesday on the popular WeChat messaging app, before censors removed it from the platform.
World Cup matches are broadcast in China via state-owned CCTV, the same broadcaster that has bombarded domestic audiences with negative reports of mass deaths and chaos via Covid in its geopolitical rival, the United States.
“Nigeria’s anti-epidemic paints have transparent results. . . we don’t know anything about Nigeria, and we only look at U. S. data. “U. S. government, what is the true importance of this for our epidemic prevention?” he asked in the open letter.
Public anger over likely arbitrary restrictions and disruption has recently erupted into infrequent protests, adding this month in southern China’s Guangzhou, where many citizens took to the streets in defiance of a mandatory lockdown.
Disclaimer: The content of this article is distributed or provided to this online page through a third party provider. is” and “as available” and has not been modified in any way. Neither we nor our affiliates guarantee the accuracy or endorse the perspectives or revisions expressed in this article. Read our full disclaimer here.