Some in China resume regular activity after COVID infections

BEIJING, Jan 2 (Reuters) – Some people in the main Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan braved cold weather and a spike in COVID-19 infections to return to regular activity on Monday, confident of a revival in the economy while others are recovering from infections.

Among those who gathered to toboggan or ice skate on a frozen lake in the capital’s Shichahai Lake Park, some were optimistic about the opening, after China abandoned strict “zero -COVID” on December 21. 7 to adopt a life strategy with the virus.

However, a wave of infections has since erupted across the country, after borders were virtually closed for three years under a strict lockdown regime and relentless testing.

“After this lockdown is over, we don’t need to scan the health code anymore, nor do we need to check the travel code,” said one of the park residents, Yang, who gave only one name.

“So we are free now.”

Also at the lake was Zhong, a 22-year-old student, who said he stayed home for two or three weeks after being infected.

“Now I can go out and it’s a good time for the New Year holidays,” he added. “I want to go around Beijing, take a look and feel the festive atmosphere.”

Monday was a public holiday, but traffic in the capital has picked up in recent days as people flock to outdoor venues, although business is still slow in some smaller, confined places, such as restaurants.

The owner of a Beijing seafood restaurant said customers had not returned in full.

“I expect this situation to continue during the Lunar New Year holiday,” said Chen, who gave only his last name. “I’m counting on business to be more normal after the holidays.”

In the central city of Wuhan, where the pandemic began three years ago, people weren’t so anxious, a man named Wu told Reuters.

“Work production, life and entertainment all return to normal levels,” added Wu, a tutor at a private training center. Read more

LUNAR NEW YEAR TRIP

China’s biggest holiday, the Lunar New Year, begins on Jan. 21 this year, when the rail network is expected to carry 5.5 million passengers, state broadcaster CCTV said.

As expectations for holiday travel rise, authorities at Tibet’s spectacular Potala Palace have announced it will open to visitors from January 3, after closing last August due to an outbreak of COVID-19. .

Some hotels in the southern resort town of Sanya are fully booked for Lunar New Year, media said.

In recent days, state media has sought to reassure the public that the COVID-19 outbreak is under control and nearing its peak.

Infections in the cities of Beijing, Guanzhou, Shanghai and Chongqing are nearing an end, the Caixin news outlet said on Sunday, citing researchers from the Chinese mall.

But infections will peak in urban areas of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai in the second half of January, they added.

More than 80% of people living in southwest Sichuan have been infected, the province’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention said.

But Monday’s single new COVID death – stable from the previous day – among China’s population of 1.4 billion does not match the experience of other countries after they reopen.

The official death toll of 5,250 since the start of the pandemic compares to more than a million in the United States. Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, a city of 7.4 million people, has reported more than 11,000 deaths.

About 9,000 people in China are likely dying daily from COVID, health data firm Airfinity said last week, while cumulative deaths since Dec. 2. 1 have likely reached 100,000, with infections at 18.6 million.

Airfinity, which is based in Britain, expects COVID cases in China to reach their first peak on January 1. 13, with 3.7 million daily infections.

China said it only counts COVID patient deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure as COVID-related.

The relatively low death toll is also inconsistent with the growing demand reported by funeral homes in several cities.

Additional reporting by Beijing Newsroom and Martin Pollard; Written by Farah Master; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.