![]() ![]() The tragic example of Hong Kong, which has one of the highest coronavirus deaths-to-population ratios in the world, shows what can happen when the elderly are not sufficiently protected from rampant Omicron.Īdding to the problems are the politics of zero-COVID, which has by now become of President Xi’s signature policies. More than 1.24 billion of China’s 1.402 billion people have been fully vaccinated, according to official figures, but tens of millions of seniors are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, and thus at high risk of falling seriously ill if they catch COVID. ![]() Read More: COVID Separates Parents From Children in Shanghai Meanwhile, the low COVID death rate has lulled some Chinese, particularly the elderly, into a false sense of security. In recent weeks, Premier Li Keqiang has issued several warnings about the economic impact, while unemployment across a sample of 31 major Chinese cities is now the highest on record. While some dispute these numbers, there is no doubt that China’s toll is a small fraction of the 998,048 American lives lost to date.īut China’s approach has created problems of its own. Despite the fact that the virus first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, the world’s most populous country has officially recorded 1.1 million cases and 5,191 deaths for the entire pandemic. If there is little or no indication when this zero-COVID strategy will change, it is because it has been a great success. Unusually, there have even been protests, with people in some neighborhoods of Shanghai gathering on their balconies at prearranged times to bang pots and pans in frustration. Videos of their hardships are posted and shared by millions, just as quickly as censors scrub them from the Internet. “We project that the Chinese healthcare system will be overwhelmed with a considerable shortage of ICUs,” they said.īut the strategy is pushing many Chinese to breaking point. Researchers estimate that China would be hit with 112 million cases in a three-month period, leading to 1.5 million deaths. National Institutes of Health, published on May 10 in the peer-reviewed Nature Medicine. Allowing COVID-19 to spread in China would lead to a “tsunami” of cases, according to a new study by Shanghai’s Fudan University, Indiana University, and the U.S. (The resulting outcry led to a pledge from city authorities to end the practice.)ĭespite growing unease about lockdown measures, President Xi Jinping doubled down on China’s zero-COVID strategy during a May 5 meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, the nation’s top political body. Videos have been shared of sanitation workers-dubbed dabai or “big whites” on account of the PPE they wear-entering homes without permission and spraying disinfectant. Food deliveries are banned in at least four of the city’s sixteen districts. Now, if somebody tests positive, all the residents of their apartment block, and not just close contacts as before, will be isolated in quarantine centers. But just as residents thought they were through the worst, restrictions were tightened once again this week. Many parents have been forcibly separated from their children and videos of unaccompanied infants crying in a Shanghai COVID-19 hospital have gone viral.Īcross China’s most populous city, mental health has taken a severe battering. A woman gripes that her family refuses to eat the meager cabbage soup she has improvised for them from her dwindling larder. One pensioner says she is unable to receive the heart medicine she needs. Some document their confinement in quarantine centers without beds or blankets. The positivity rate statewide was 23.2% with rates slightly lower in the Tampa Bay area, ranging from 21.1% in Pasco to 20.5% in Hillsborough and 19.1% in Pinellas County.The lockdown in Shanghai is now in its sixth week and residents have been flooding social media with disgruntled posts. From July 22-28, Florida reported 73,346 coronavirus cases, adding more than 10,000 cases a day on average. Additionally, there are often many people coming in and out of the jails, as people are booked in the facility immediately after arrest and others are released on bail.Īccording to the COVID Prison Project, more than 600,000 inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus and nearly 3,000 have died as of Friday.įlorida is entering its third month of high caseloads, according to recent coronavirus data from Florida health officials. ![]() Prisons and jails are particularly susceptible to coronavirus outbreaks due to the lack of social distancing possible in the facilities. At the Pasco County Jail, five of the 1,516 inmates there had tested positive for the virus as of Monday, Pasco Sheriff’s spokesperson Amanda Hunter said. There were 2,767 inmates in the jail, Lynn said. The Hillsborough County Jail had 34 COVID-positive inmates as of Monday, according Hillsborough Sheriff’s spokesperson Merissa Lynn. ![]()
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