After a week of exceptional protests, the authorities have announced a “new phase” in the fight against the epidemic.
by Simon Leplâtre (Shanghai, Correspondance)
Beijing ended up listening to the street. After a week of exceptional protests, led both by students and residents angry with their confinement, the Chinese authorities announced, Thursday 1
Several signals had been sent in this sense at the start of the week, but it was the Deputy Prime Minister, Sun Chunlan, responsible for the response to the epidemic since early 2020, who has clarified things: “While The omicron variant becomes less pathogenic, that more people are vaccinated and that our experience in the prevention of COVID-19 has progressed, our fight against the pandemic arrives at a new stage, “she said. Thursday, the canton tower, the highest skyscraper in the capital of Guangdong, displayed an unequivocal message: “Each person is individually the first person responsible for their health.”
The government had started a slight change on November 11, by publishing twenty measures supposed to help better target restrictions, prohibiting for example too large confinements or prevention school closings. But while the number of cases increases with the arrival of winter, local governments have only strengthened the restrictions, because the objective displayed by Beijing remained zero covid. Shanghai’s experience in March, however, showed that trying to stop the omicron variant with targeted measures does not work. This gap between Beijing’s speeches and reality on the ground has also fueled the tensions of recent weeks. The announcement of Sun Chunlan clarifies things: if it has not proclaimed the official end of zero covid, which will take time, it has not pronounced this formula in its speech.
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