Amidst a significant influx of parents and children seeking medical attention for severe respiratory conditions in Beijing, hospitals have resumed COVID-19 testing. However, there has been scant news coverage regarding a potential resurgence of the virus, despite the emergence of new variants worldwide.
Chinese health officials attribute the increase in pneumonia and other respiratory cases to a combination of pathogens, including mycoplasma pneumonia, respiratory syncytial virus, seasonal influenza, and COVID-19. Government documents are now warning of a potential new wave of coronavirus infections. The State Council has instructed local authorities to recommence testing and disease monitoring in ports, airports, schools, care homes, and other institutions.
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The State Council directive issued on November 24 urged, "All localities should strengthen prevention and control in elderly care, childcare, schools, social welfare and other institutions as well as confined spaces, and urge daily protection and health monitoring."
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The first wave of Omicron infections, following the lifting of restrictions under Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s “zero-COVID” policy, is estimated to have resulted in at least 2 million deaths.
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Unverified reports on social media suggest that local governments are reactivating the controversial “Health Code” COVID-19 tracker app, previously used to enforce home confinement or mass quarantine.
A Beijing resident, who identified herself only as Yu due to fear of reprisals, told RFA Mandarin, “I took my child to hospital to get a nucleic acid test [for COVID-19]. My daughter had been for emergency treatment at the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital pediatric department, and after triage … she was told to get a nucleic acid test.”
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Yu expressed her confusion about the situation, stating, “It seems that a mutated strain of COVID is back, but the virus isn’t being mentioned on the news. I can’t figure out what’s happening.”
Another Beijing resident, Wu, revealed that some locations in the city are offering free COVID-19 tests. “I heard that they’re not charging now because they want people to cooperate,” Wu said. “They’re testing at the bigger railway stations and international airports and at some conference venues.”
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A directive from the Ministry of Education dated December 4 urged schools nationwide to take measures to mitigate the wave of “winter disease,” specifically naming COVID-19, which is not a seasonal disease. The directive stated, “According to the judgment of the health and disease control departments, the global COVID-19 pandemic is still under way, and the COVID-19 virus is still mutating.”
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The directive warned of potential overlapping epidemics of multiple respiratory diseases this winter and next spring, citing a State Council ruling on “preventing and controlling new COVID-19 infections.”
Health officials have been advising people to wear masks, wash their hands, and ventilate indoor spaces to prevent disease spread. A Beijing resident, Zhao, suggested that the government fears a resurgence of the coronavirus, noting that many of the cases of “pneumonia” and other respiratory diseases have symptoms that are indistinguishable from COVID without a test.
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Zhao said, “The propaganda is saying that these cases are caused by mycoplasma pneumonia, yet I also heard that the [SARS-CoV2] virus has mutated. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know exactly which disease it is.”
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is currently tracking several “variants of concern,” including Omicron BA.2.75, first detected in India, and Omicron XBB.1.5-like (a), first detected in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is monitoring a larger number of COVID-19 variants but hasn’t designated any variants of concern.
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Social media posts revealed documents from the 2023 China Textile Industry Federation Science and Technology Awards Conference, scheduled for December 6 in Beijing, requiring all participants to present a certificate certifying a negative COVID test dated the day before.
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“For a conference starting on Dec. 6, they want a test dated Dec. 5, and they’re not letting anyone in without a health clearance certificate,” Beijing resident Wu said.
Wu noted that he knows many people who are currently ill with “a very bad flu.” “They suspect that maybe it’s COVID, but officials are saying it’s the flu,” he said.
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Repeated calls to the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital pediatric clinic, Beijing’s Chaoyang Hospital, and several other hospitals went unanswered during office hours on Wednesday.
A kindergarten principal in the central city of Shaoyang, who identified herself only as Shao due to fear of reprisals, said most of the children are sick with “fever.” “A lot of kids are infected,” Shao said. “In one class, only three kids turned up for school, and the rest were off sick.”
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A resident of Hunan’s provincial capital Changsha, who identified himself only as Chen, said authorities there are also preparing to restart COVID-19 testing. “We’re going to start nucleic acid testing again,” Chen said. “Right now, our hospitals are full of kids.”
Chen revealed that the directive has already come through – people in the government are saying that it’s better to rely on just testing [as opposed to other restrictive measures]. However, he expressed his reluctance to return to the days of zero-COVID, which ended in December 2022 amid nationwide protests. “The thing I fear most is another lockdown,” he said.
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