Return of the virus: the Chinese under surveillance

China says it is once again in war mode. More than 600 cases of Covid-19 in the north of the country, a first for five months, so the barriers and health checks are back. The Chinese put back their masks. Temperature readings are everywhere.

In Beijing, the French school is still open, but maybe not for long. Chinese schools have already closed for the holidays, two weeks earlier than expected. A French expatriate in Beijing, Benjamin Devillard, who came to drop his son off at the school bus is already forced to show a white paw. He explains that you have to show the QR Code to be able to prove that he and his son were not in a dangerous place.

30 km from the city center, the roads are deserted. In these villages, around forty cases have been identified, then 500,000 inhabitants find themselves confined. All entrances are closed. No one comes in, no one leaves, not even a truck that has come to deliver provisions. This is the Chinese method: radical! Isolate, test, vaccinate. Every day, thousands of Chinese come to receive the injection. It is almost a national duty. “I answer the call of the country”, loose a young man. Vaccination is not compulsory, but free for everyone.

Two Chinese vaccines from Sinopharm and Sinovac laboratories have been inactivated. The second is only 50% effective. On social networks, no mention of this relative effectiveness. Getting vaccinated has almost become fashionable. In China, nine million doses have already been administered. As these national holidays approach, the authorities recommend avoiding travel as much as possible.