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On the first Saturday of March, China woke up with less than a hundred new infections. It was the first time this had happened since January 18. The time has come to start talking about the famous de-escalation. But the people needed an image to regain confidence in the official figures. This came with Xi Jinping's visit to Wuhan (March 10), to the place where it all started. The new narrative of victory was already underway.

Even so, an editorial in the China Daily newspaper that started with a striking phrase: "A single spark can re-set the prairie on fire." The spark was an unexpected focus starring all those people who returned to China with the Covid-19 in their luggage. Then the fear of regrowth began, of a second wave of infections, of starting again from scratch.

In those days, many looked at the example of Hong Kong. In mainland China, despite their successful propaganda, they were still caught up in their fight to contain the coronavirus, currently focused on imported cases. But in the former British colony, they had barely reported 150 infections and boasted that the semi-quarantine measures imposed on its 7.5 million inhabitants had slowed the pandemic.

So much so that the officials recovered their positions in the offices and the meters were refilled. People lost their fear , embracing a certain normal life in bars and restaurants. Until the contagions began to shoot, again, by those who returned from other countries . The Hong Kong authorities ended up decreeing that no one who was not a resident could enter this special administrative region. A measure that is still in force in a city with 1,085 confirmed cases.

In early April the pandemic had already spread worldwide. In Asia, countries such as Singapore, praised for its quick response by shielding its airports in January, its massive tests and its tracking of possible infected, began to face a flare-up by those foreign workers who returned in March, from places that, at priori, they did not register high contagion rates. In three days they went from 5,000 to 9,000 infected. The restrictive measures were extended. Today they already have more than 34,800 cases (although only 23 deaths).

May: new confinements in China

While infections were soaring in Singapore, a new viral front appeared in China in the northeast, in Heilongjiang province, on the border with Russia. Dozens of Chinese citizens returning from Putin's country tested positive for nucleic acid. First, a small border town of 70,000 inhabitants called Suifenhe was closed. Afterward, confinement was imposed in the provincial capital, Harbin (10 million). There, several officials were fired for their negligence in failing to prevent a new coronavirus outbreak. Others of higher rank, such as the deputy mayor of the city, received a political demerit that will not allow him to prosper in his political career. Many shops that had opened closed again. And thousands of people returned to home quarantine.

Already in May, near there, in Jilin province, there was also talk of a new outbreak. They had not reported a single infection for 73 days, but authorities tracked 46 new cases related to a 45-year-old woman who works in a laundry in the city of Shulan. But, unlike the Heilongjiang outbreak, the woman had neither left the city nor been in contact with anyone returning from abroad. Something that puzzled the local government. Furthermore, doctors warned that the coronavirus was manifesting differently compared to the original Wuhan outbreak. Jilin patients took longer to test negative and developed symptoms one to two weeks after infection.

Throughout this region, movements were once again limited to more than 100 million people. And in cities like Shulan, businesses locked up and children left schools to resume online classes from home. In coronavirus slang it is known as backing up. Cities that overcame the pandemic, that returned to normal, until another viral wave, although slight, knocked down their progress.

The example of South Korea

A very significant case is also that of South Korea. The nation has been a world example in stopping the pandemic. An applauded recipe based on massive tests and population monitoring without the need to establish strict quarantines. Until the revelry in the capital Seoul was cut short by a new outbreak in downtown Itaewon nightclubs .

On May 11, 35 new infections were reported related, according to local media, to a man who was reported to have been to five party venues. Then the authorities closed 2,100 nightclubs and began to track down all those citizens who happened to be partying in the nightclubs of Itaewon with the first infected. In total, related to this focus, 266 cases have been found.

Last Friday there were also more than a hundred new infected, the worst outbreak in almost two months. Most related to an e-commerce center in the city of Bucheon, just outside Seoul. This interrupted the South Korean de-escalation. More than 250 schools closed a few days after reopening in stages starting May 20. Also, in the capital and its surroundings, karaokes, museums and public parks have been closed. The authorities have asked the population to avoid mass meetings and to maintain the security distance. Today, the Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 35 new cases (11,503 total), most of them related to the Bucheon center.

Countries like South Korea or China take advantage - at least in a matter of time - in the fight against the pandemic over the rest of the world. When the European countries began to put their restrictions and quarantines, in these Asian nations they were already going through de-escalation. Now all the experts warn that the new normality until there is a vaccine is to live with these new outbreaks.

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

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