Beijing and Shanghai residents return to work as China prepares to live with COVID

• Life returns to normal in Shanghai and Beijing
• Cities across China are reporting large numbers of infections
• China reports zero COVID-related deaths for 6th straight day

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Dec 26 (Reuters) – Masked commuters from Beijing and Shanghai swarmed subway trains on Monday as China’s two biggest cities edged closer to life with COVID-19, as millions have been infected with the largely unchecked virus across the country.

After three years of ruthless anti-coronavirus restrictions, President Xi Jinping abandoned the country’s zero-COVID policy of relentless lockdown and testing this month in the face of protests and a growing epidemic.

Health experts and residents fear Chinese statistics, which show no new COVID deaths reported for the six days to Sunday, do not reflect the actual death tolland that the country’s fragile health system is overwhelmed.

After the initial shock of the political reversal and a few weeks in which people in Beijing and Shanghai stayed indoors, either to cope with the disease or to try to avoid it, there are signs that the life is about to return closer to normal.

Subway trains in Beijing and Shanghai were packed, while some major traffic arteries in both cities were jammed with slow-moving cars on Monday as residents commuted to work.

“I am ready to live with the pandemic,” said Lin Zixin, 25, from Shanghai. Lockdowns are not a long-term solution

This year, in an effort to keep infections from spiraling out of control across the country, China’s mall’s 25 million residents endured two months of bitter isolation under a strict lockdown that lasted until June 1.

The bustling streets of Shanghai contrasted sharply with the atmosphere of April and May, when hardly anyone was visible outside.

An annual Christmas market held at the Bund, a shopping area in Shanghai, has been popular with city residents over the weekend. Crowds swarmed into the winter holiday season at Shanghai Disneyland and Universal Studios in Beijing on Sunday, lining up for rides in Christmas-themed outfits.

The number of trips to scenic spots in the southern city of Guangzhou this weekend rose 132 percent from last weekend, local newspaper The 21st Century Business Herald reported.

“Now everyone is back to a normal routine,” said Han, a 29-year-old Beijing resident. “The tense atmosphere has passed.”

China is the latest major country to move towards treating COVID-19 as endemic. Its containment measures had slowed the economy by $17 trillion to its lowest growth rate in nearly half a century, disrupting global supply chains and trade.

The world’s second-largest economy is set to suffer further in the near term as the wave of COVID spreads to manufacturing areas and the workforce falls ill, before rebounding next year, analysts say.

You’re here suspended production at its Shanghai plant on Saturday, putting forward a plan to suspend most work at the plant during the last week of December. The company did not give a reason.

RISING WAVE

The most populous country in the world has shrunk its borders definition for classifying deaths as COVID-related, counting only those involving pneumonia or respiratory failure caused by COVID, which raised eyebrows among global health experts.

The country’s health system has been strained, with staff being asked to work while sick and retired medical workers from rural communities are rehired to help, according to state media.

The provincial government of Zhejiang, a major industrial province near Shanghai with a population of 65.4 million, said on Sunday it was battling about one million new daily COVID-19 infections, a number that is expected to double. in the coming days.

Health authorities in southeast Jiangxi province said infections would peak in early January, adding there could be further spikes as people travel next month for Lunar New Year celebrations. , state media reported.

They warned that the wave of infections would last three months and that around 80% of the province’s 45 million people could be infected.

The city of Qingdao in the eastern province of Shandong estimated that up to 530,000 residents were infected every day.

Cities across China have rushed to add intensive care units and fever clinics, facilities designed to prevent the wider spread of contagious diseases in hospitals.

The Beijing municipal government said the number of fever clinics in the city had risen from 94 to nearly 1,300, state media said. Shanghai has 2,600 such clinics and has transferred doctors from less-stressed medical departments to help them.

Concerns remain about the ability of China’s less wealthy cities to cope with a rise in serious infections, especially as hundreds of millions of rural migrant workers are expected to return to their families for the Lunar New Year.

“I fear the influx of people will be huge… (and) the epidemic will break out again,” said Lin, a Shanghai resident.

Reports from the Beijing and Shanghai offices; Written by Marius Zaharia. Editing by Gerry Doyle

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