Covid-19: China recorded on Sunday (13) about 3,400 cases of covid-19, double the number noted the day before. Considered the most serious outbreak of the disease in two years of pandemic, the numbers made the country’s health authorities resume their “covid zero” policy from the beginning of the pandemic, and order the closure of schools in Shanghai, blockade of neighborhoods in Shenzhen. and isolation of entire cities in the northeast.
While this resurgence of the disease poses no threat to the rest of the world, as the number of cases recorded in China is much lower than in many less populous countries, its rapid rise worries authorities. In addition to impacting Beijing’s “dynamic release” claim, the growth of the contagion delays the achievement of the goals of rapid elimination of covid-19.
Blocks and quick tests
After registering 1,412 new symptomatic cases in a single day, up from 134 the day before, the province of Jilin, in northeast China, has become the main focus of covid-19 in the country, representing 78% of the national total. On Saturday (12), the administrative division had its territory partially closed, and the 700,000 inhabitants of the city of Yanji, on the border with North Korea, had to be confined to their homes on Sunday.
Meanwhile, in Shanghai, the country’s largest city, there was a great movement for the temporary closure of schools, businesses, restaurants and malls, to avoid the adoption of total social isolation. The increase in cases of covid-19 made the national health commission adopt an unprecedented measure: the introduction of rapid antigen tests - self-tests - available online or in pharmacies.
