Zero Covid Policy

Xi govt ‘kicks, punch’ anti-Covid protestors in jail, monitors phones to trace their moves

According to a Chinese website that tracks human rights issues in the country called Weiquanwang, at least 32 people have been detained by the police since December

How Covid-19 wave hit China’s countryside earlier than expected

Returning migrant workers and students brought a surge to rural areas weeks ahead of the Lunar New Year mass migration, catching grass-roots clinics off guard

COVID in China: Why young Chinese are exposing themselves to the virus

China is opening up despite a rise in cases. And the young don’t want to miss out. Some are infecting themselves with COVID-19 so that they don’t have to change holiday plans this Lunar New Year and others are hoping they will recover at home and get immunity

China is reopening after 3 years: Who can visit the country? What are the restrictions?

On Sunday, China will reopen its borders to Hong Kong, almost three years after COVID-19-related curbs isolated the financial hub from the mainland. It will also drop quarantine rules for international passengers but leisure tourists are not yet allowed entry

Is China good at controlling but not ruling? What the COVID-19 crisis says

If good governance is about transparency, responsibility, accountability and responsiveness to the needs of the people, the Chinese government has barely practised it, either in its harsh “zero-COVID” policy, or in its haphazard reopening

Amid COVID surge, China approves America’s Paxlovid, an anti-viral drug: Why this is an unlikely move

China has been reluctant to take medicines and vaccines from the West. But amid the deadly COVID-19 wave, it has approved American pharma giant Pfizer’s drug, Paxlovid. The oral antiviral has proved to cut the risk of hospitalisation and death

The Real Picture: Why China’s official COVID death count doesn’t stack up

Crematoriums across China are reporting a surge in the number of bodies and hospitals are overwhelmed with patients being rolled in every minute. Yet the official death count owing to COVID-19 remains at seven since restrictions were lifted earlier this month. What’s going on in the dragon’s lair?

‘Masking actual number of deaths’: Social media posts claim China fudging data on fatalities

There is a flood of social media posts on China’s Twitter-style Weibo platform talking about longer-than-normal queues at crematoriums and funeral homes, that are buckling under a growing number of bodies, ostensibly all Covid-19 deaths

China gripped by 1st of three predicted COVID waves as a million projected to die in 2023

Modelling by the US-based Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) suggests the China could witness an explosion of Covid cases and over a million people in the country could die in 2023, with fatalities peaking around 5,000 per day in April

China reports first coronavirus deaths since easing zero-COVID policy

Official case numbers are widely considered unreliable following the end of mandatory mass testing, while fears are mounting of a wave of infections in poor rural areas during the upcoming Lunar New Year holidays