COVID infections soar in China: Important points to know

Nearly three years after the pandemic, China is seeing a resurgence of COVID infections.

"China reported record high COVID-19 infections on Thursday, with cities nationwide imposing localised lockdowns, mass testing and other curbs that are fuelling frustration and darkening the outlook for the world's second largest economy," Reuters reported.

The streets of Chaoyang, the capital's most populous district, have been increasingly empty this week, the media reported.

The China government has been following the zero-COVID policy, which is a signature policy of President Xi Jinping. The government says the policy is inevitable to save lives and prevent the medical system from being overwhelmed when there is a rise in COVID cases.

On Wednesday, China reported a total of 31,444 cases; this includes asymptomatic cases as per the country's National Health Commission. These numbers of COVID cases are more than the highest COVID cases recorded last time on April 13 following which Shanghai was shut down for months; during this time the locals struggled to get basic amenities like buying food and accessing medical care facilties.

While several nations have worked on various ways to tackle the spread of the coronavirus, China has implemented zero COVID policy to handle this infection.

Zero-COVID policy is an aggressive approach implemented by the current government towards curbing the spread of the disease by putting maximum restriction on healthcare facilities, lockdown, contact tracing and testing.

As per this strategy, cities can impose strictest lockdowns even if only a small number of cases are reported. The government says the motive behind this policy is to make sure that there are no new infections and the virus is removed completely before the nation resumes its social and economic affairs in a normal manner.

After almost three years of continuous lockdowns and restrictions, public discontent has increased in China.

Locals have told the media about the frustration of waiting for testing and the requirement for a "health code" to access public places. As per locals, there is a green health code which is valid for a few hours and in case the test does not come back on time the code gets invalid.

"The unrelenting policy has caused fatigue and resentment among swathes of the population as the pandemic nears its third year, sparking sporadic protests and hitting productivity in the world's second-largest economy," Reuters reported.

While the China government is leaving no stone unturned to limit the spread of COVID, this is not being accepted by the citizens.

This week, there was a clash between riot police and workers when the authorities decided to lock down the world’s biggest iPhone assembly factory, in the city of Zhengzhou following an outbreak. Several videos in this connection were massively circulated on social media.

Last week, residents in the southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou protested against an extended lockdown. The protestors tore down barriers.

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While the overall coronavirus vaccination rate in China is more than 92%, with most people having received at least one dose, the main concern is that only fewer older citizens, especially those over the age of 80 have been vaccinated against the infection.

Also, the number of COVID cases in China is comparatively less than the entire population of the country.

It is prudent to keep oneself safe from the infection by wearing masks and keeping hands sanitized.

One should also be aware of the symptoms of COVID like runny nose, fever, headache, sore throat and fatigue.

People should actively test for COVID once the symptoms are seen and should self isolate themselves in order to cut down the risk of transmission of the virus to healthy people.