Despite the easing of coronavirus restrictions, the streets of major Chinese cities are nearly empty, it reports Reuters. Many residents are ill or trying not to leave their homes once again to avoid infection in the face of a severe shortage of medicines, the agency noted. Yesterday, December 17, the China Statistics Bureau reported 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 across the country. However, after the PRC State Health Commission stopped since December 14 to indicate the number of new asymptomatic cases of the disease, this statistic does not reflect the true extent of the incidence at all. Reuters reports that despite zero coronavirus deaths in the past ten days, Beijing’s morgues and crematoria cannot keep up.
Last Friday, December 16, the Chinese State Council issued a directive in which it called on local authorities to coordinate their actions in order to provide the country’s population with sufficient quantities of medicines. However, as reported Financial Times, there is already a serious shortage of medicines across the country not only for COVID-19, but also for colds. The shortage of medicines has already been reported by residents of Shanghai, Shenzhen and some other cities. At the same time, tests for COVID-19 also disappeared from pharmacies and long lines lined up at the clinics that provided the tests.
The authorities of many cities have already announced the transition of schools to the mode of remote work or its extension where it operated so far. Hence, as of Monday in Shanghai, schools have to transfer most of their classes online, and in nearby Hangzhou, most students have been advised to complete the winter semester ahead of schedule. The Guangzhou authorities also announced the extension of the distance learning regime.
China’s chief epidemiologist Wu Zunyu said yesterday, Dec. 17, that the country faces three waves of COVID-19 in the next three months, and the first has already started. Peak incidence rates are expected during and after the Chinese New Year celebration. This time the holidays will be from 21 to 27 January. During the New Year holidays there is massive internal migration, when hundreds of millions of people travel around the country to visit relatives.
