China Struggles To Stamp Out Worst COVID Outbreak Since Wuhan
A Chinese health official warned late last month that China's latest delta-variant-driven COVID flareup would likely continue to spread despite authorities' best efforts to stamp it out.
Turns out, they were right.
According to Bloomberg, a growing number of provinces are battling with COVID than at any time since COVID first burst out of Wuhan in late 2019. The latest outbreak is being driven by the delta variant (which was recently found to also have a hyper-infectious sub-variant) despite the CCP's increasingly aggressive measures adopted to try and stop the spread.
As of Wednesday, some 600 locally-transmitted cases have been confirmed in 19 of China's 31 provinces (to be sure, just like China's prior COVID numbers, these should also be taken with a grain of salt).
China reported 93 new local cases on Wednesday, along with 11 asymptomatic cases. Three provinces detected their first cases in this outbreak, including central Chongqing, Henan, and Jiangsu, which is situated on the eastern coast. Beijing alone reported nine infections Wednesday , bringing the capital city's total cases in this wave to 38. In response, CPC authorities halted ticket sales for trains heading int the city at 123 train stations in 23 regions.
Source: Bloomberg
Chinese officials insist they are committed to maintaining their "COVID Zero" approach, even after Australia and New Zealand have abandoned their respective "COVID Zero" policies after sustaining massive economic damage while doing little to suppress the spread. Beijing has succeeded in the past at keeping outbreaks contained, although they've largely been aided by their complete control and manipulation of the media. In reality, who knows how many cases of COVID have actually afflicted the Chinese people?
But even according to the official sources, the latest outbreak has spread further while refusing to yield to containment measures that previously were successful in stopping the spread.
What's worse, is that COVID isn't the only problem facing the CCP right now. China's Ministry of Commerce urged residents Tuesday to stock up on essentials like food in case the outbreak leads to another wave of lockdowns. Unsurprisingly, that announcement sparked another wave of panic buying among households. It comes after the CCP ordered utilities to stock up on supplies, causing energy prices to jump as well.
The city of Chongqing has instituted mass testing overnight Wednesday as officials aim to stamp out the virus during a "golden 24 hours" after detecting their first case.
At this point, depending on the number of infections, the CCP could go much further ordering mass testing, lockdowns and other measure, while China's top health expert, Zhong Nanshan has insisted he is confident that China can curb the outbreak. He defended China's "COVID Zero" approach, even as the rest of the world acknowledges that humanity needs to learn to live with COVID, because it's not going anywhere soon.
Unless Chinese scientists have a secret cure hidden in a laboratory refrigerator somewhere...
https://ift.tt/31uFCAA
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/31uFCAA
via IFTTT
0 comments
Post a Comment