Despite particularly severe restrictions, China is in turn affected by the Omicron wave, which began to sweep across all countries from the end of November.

This country, where the last Winter Olympics took place under a concrete health bubble, has even just recorded its first deaths linked to the epidemic for more than a year.

Both deaths occurred in Jilin, the province hardest hit by the current wave, the National Health Commission said.

These first deaths since January 26, 2021 in mainland China – excluding Hong Kong and Macau – bring the toll of the pandemic there to 4,638 dead, while Hong Kong, also in the grip of a resurgence of Covid-19, deplores more than 200 dead. per day.

Beijing has made a political argument out of its low death rate, saying it demonstrates the power of its one-party governance model.

But strict border controls, massive screening campaigns and targeted confinements do not completely prevent the virus from circulating.

Both deaths are quietly reported in the Health Commission's daily report and little mention is made of them by the public media.

Adapted strategy

The world's second largest economy, which recorded less than 100 cases a day just three weeks ago, has announced more than a thousand new daily infections for the past week.

Questions have emerged with the highly contagious Omicron variant about the long-term effectiveness of the government's so-called zero-Covid strategy.

In recent weeks, official sources have even suggested that China may at some point have to live with Covid-19, as other countries do, and have expressed concern about the impact of broad lockdowns on the economy. .

But President Xi Jinping assured Thursday that the government is "sticking" to the "zero-Covid" strategy, according to state television, while allowing a more "targeted" approach.

Thus, Shanghai closed schools and carried out a massive screening campaign but escaped total confinement.

The authorities have also announced that patients with mild symptoms can be isolated in quarantine centers and no longer necessarily in specialized hospitals.

World

Covid-19: In China, Xi Jinping orders the continuation of zero Covid, in the midst of an epidemic rebound

Health

Covid-19: The number of contaminations continues to increase over a week

  • Variant Omicron

  • China

  • Coronavirus

  • Covid-19

  • Health

  • Xi Jinping

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