Chinese activities resume as COVID levels rise
In China’s major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan, some residents are defying the cold and an increase in COVID-19 infections to resume their daily activities in the hopes that the economy will grow as more people recover from infections.
In the capital’s Shichahai Lake Park, people gathered to sledge or ice skate on a frozen lake. Some of them were optimistic about the opening up after China dropped strict “zero-COVID” measures on December 7 to adopt a strategy of living with the virus.
Nevertheless, a wave of diseases has since spread across the country after borders were largely kept closed for three years under a rigorous regime of lockdowns and constant testing.
Now I can go out and it’s good timing for the New Year’s Day holiday. I want to go around in Beijing, have a look and feel the festive mood.”
Traffic is building again on the capital’s roads as people quickly return to outdoor sites, such as lakes, rivers and shopping malls. But business is still slow at some smaller, confined places such as restaurants, owners said.
In the central city of Wuhan, where the pandemic started three years ago, a man with the last name Wu told the Reuters news agency that “work output, life, and amusement are all returning back to normal levels.”
Wu, a tutor at a private education training center, continued, “People who had been infected were not as nervous any more.”
In this year’s Lunar New Year, which starts on January 21, the train system is anticipated to handle 5.5 million people, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Authorities at Tibet’s magnificent Potala Palace announced that it would reopen to visitors on January 3 following its closure in August last year due to a COVID-19 epidemic, amid the anticipated rise in holiday travel.
According to media reports, some hotels in Sanya, a popular tourist destination on the southern island of Hainan, are already fully booked for the Lunar New Year.
The public has recently been reassured by official media that the COVID-19 outbreak is under control and about to peak.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Saturday that more than 80% of residents of the southwestern province of Sichuan are afflicted.
But among China’s 1.4 billion people, one more COVID death on Monday – even with the prior day – does not compare to what other nations experienced once they reopened.
