International reporting
China: how much does the “Zero Covid” strategy cost?
Audio 02:33
A person is tested by PCR for the search for Covid-19, in Beijing.
© RFI/Stephane Lagarde
By: Stéphane Lagarde Follow
3 mins
How much does “Zero Covid” cost in China?
We have told you about the impact of the epidemic strategy on the Chinese economy.
We are interested this morning in the expenses incurred by the State and the communities for the repeated PCR tests of the populations, this while a massive screening campaign starts this Tuesday, July 12 in Shanghai.
Advertising
From our correspondent in Beijing,
The Omicron BA-5 sub-variant has been on everyone's lips and in every newspaper since the discovery of a new outbreak in Shanghai.
Result: the pace of Covid tests has accelerated in recent days, tells us this Sino-Australian who came from the Chinese economic capital and met near one of the countless PCR stations in Beijing.
"
I don't even know why I'm here.
I came because I am at the hotel at the moment and I received an alert on my mobile asking me to take a test.
Usually, we do a PCR every 72
hours… It's normal here
.
»
A test every 3 days is China's new normal under "Zero Covid", with these images of a long queue in front of screening stations.
“
For the past few days, we have had to do a test every 24 hours, it is our work unit that requests it
,” said Ms. Zhao, contacted in Shanghai.
“
Generally, these are mobile points, small special cars for testing that come to our neighborhood around 4 p.m.
The queue can seem very long on the sidewalk, but usually it takes me less than half an hour
.
»
► To read also: China: the vaccine pass does not pass in Beijing
294 billion yuan per year
Mandatory and free tests.
Some in state media pulled out their calculators.
If the more than 500 million inhabitants of the so-called first-tier cities in China must carry out a test every 48 hours at the rate of 3.2 yuan (0.50 euro cents) per test, i.e. the lowest price applied to the market, then we arrive at 294 billion yuan (42 billion euros) per year.
But that's not all, it also charges voluntary caregivers...
This small PCR kiosk near the silk market in Beijing takes samples from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
2,000 throat scrapes every day, the head nurse tells us.
“
All tests are free of course.
We work for a single laboratory, but as it does not have enough staff, the company goes through a temporary agency.
We are paid by the day and we lack volunteers.
Beijing is big, you know, there are a lot of people to test and you need at least a nursing degree to carry out the tests
.
»
► To read also: China: the “Zero Covid” and its mountains of medical waste to be recycled
Between 1.3 and 1.8% of China's annual GDP
According to some press leaks, the testers in white suits would be paid 10,000 yuan per month (a little less than 1,500 euros per month), at the rate of three people per PCR kiosk, who pays the bill?
Next to a PCR point in the business center, a turtle hangs on a wire at the end of a broom.
The animal was supposedly found at a construction site by the caretaker, who also in his opinion on the free tests.
“
Me, I come from Henan, in the center of the country, where I had to pay 38
yuan to pass my tests in my village last year
”
,
he confides.
“
Today is 16 yuan for the test, not all provinces can do it, and the turtle doesn't need it.
»
Tests for life, at least while the virus is still there.
The "Zero Covid", the health of the Chinese whatever the cost, at a cost that only the second largest economy in the world can afford.
Between 1.3 and 1.8% of China's annual GDP, just for repeated population testing, according to analysts from Soochow Securities and Nomura Bank.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
China
Coronavirus