China closes Guangzhou to most arrivals as virus outbreak spreads

They covered up the initial alarm sounded by a brave Doctor (pls search it, if written the post would probably be removed) in October 2019.They did nothing to stop domestic or international travel in the first critcal weeks/months of the outbreak. They locked Wuhan down and some other provinces. It worked because, as we now know, the original covid wasn't as contagious. Now with Omicron the dynamics have changed and they are swimming up river with no paddle and inside paper boats named 'Sinopharm'. This isn't going to go well, basically.

This is going to put a serious dent into China's economy.

China will carry this on forever? Death rates thankfully pretty low but the damage to the people after years of this stuff is real. I have friends and colleagues in various cities in China who are really miserable.

Despite the large number of cases, no new deaths have been reported in the Shanghai wave, possibly because the omicron variant is less deadly than older variants.

That*s the good news about all of this. It definitely seems strict, but it is also working at preventing deaths. While any death is too many, China has kept it down to

I apologize, my original post looks like I accidentally deleted half of it as I hit post, I reposted it below if you can delete the previous comment.

Despite the large number of cases, no new deaths have been reported in the Shanghai wave, possibly because the omicron variant is less deadly than older variants.

That*s the good news about all of this. It definitely seems strict, but it is also working at preventing deaths. While any death is too many, China has kept it down to less than 5000. Not the best, but given their population and population density it is extremely impressive. The US, with by far the worst ratio in the world, has no place to be critical of anyone's handling of this pandemic.

It definitely makes sense they want to get Guangzhou under control sooner rather than later, they don't want a repeat of Shanghai. Whether they were worried about the economy or just caught off guard, they were uncharacteristically slow there.

Despite the large number of cases, no new deaths have been reported in the Shanghai wave, possibly because the omicron variant is less deadly than older variants.

Or it can be because as done repeatedly in the past the CCP is silencing the reports. Sources have clearly said elderly deaths have been happening in homes with outbreaks of COVID, but officially none of those deaths have been reported. Which makes sense since the less censored disaster in Hong Kong also caused numerous deaths on the poorly vaccinated elderly population.

This action shows that the Chinese government cares for it's people and not capitalism.

China is turning into a giant jail. Homeprisonment for all. Covid zero will eventually require this to be nationwide and permanent.

This action shows that the Chinese government cares for it's people and not capitalism.

How is imprisoning a city of 26 million people in their apartments, or in many cases at their places of work, for weeks caring for their people? How is preventing people with health problems who need chemotherapy or other hospital treatments from going to the places they need to go to to receive the necessary care caring for their people? People are literally dying at home because they cannot receive the care or medications they need. That is a government that "cares for it's people"? Really?

@TARA TAN KITAOKA

I agree, I think that is why it is easier to be more critical of the Shanghai situation, because it seemed like officials there (who thankfully have been canned) initially tried to value the economy over the people. It is why they got into the situation they are in now.

@Desert Tortoise

That is an extremely easy question. Because the alternative is hundreds of thousands, if not millions dead. I would sooner be stuck at home (or even my office) for a couple weeks than dead. I realize it is an extreme example, since they are basically the best/worst respectively, but comparing China to the US is night and day.

I would rather have a government that cared if I was alive over one that cared if I was making them money.

This action shows that the Chinese government cares for it's people and not capitalism.

The CCP cares only for its image and holding on to power.

That is an extremely easy question. Because the alternative is hundreds of thousands, if not millions dead.

That is a false dichotomy, countries like New Zealand have successfully abandoned the "zero covid" approach and replaced it with appropriate control of the spreading while tolerating some cases, as a result they never had the disaster that happened in Hong Kong nor the total shutdown of the economy as in Shanghai.

This is not a problem with only one solution nor a switch that is either 100 or 0%, China had a lot of time to prepare and change the approach towards options better sustained epidemiologically (like a much stronger vaccination effort in vulnerable population). But for reasons that we can only speculate the CCP choose to persist on betting all in being able to stop the spreading completely so it would not need to do other things. With Delta and specially Omicron variants this is just too risky and expensive.

virusrexToday  08:35 am JST

That is a false dichotomy, countries like New Zealand have successfully abandoned the "zero covid" approach and replaced it with appropriate control of the spreading while tolerating some cases, as a result they never had the disaster that happened in Hong Kong nor the total shutdown of the economy as in Shanghai.

When New Zealand abandoned the zero covid approach, Covid infections and related deaths skyrocketed, as shown by basic facts.

China has stuck to its “zero-COVID” strategy of handling outbreaks with strict isolation and mass testing, despite complaints in Shanghai over shortages of food and medical services.

China successfully implemented the zero covid policy and as a result it has the lowest infection and covid related death rate per population in the world.

Every country that abandoned the zero covid approach saw a huge increase in numbers of infected and related deaths.

This is the reality.

When New Zealand abandoned the zero covid approach, Covid infections and related deaths skyrocketed, as shown by basic facts.

No the cases and death increased when the variants entered the country, which made the Zero Covid policy risky and unsustainable. Your "basic facts" can easily be debunked.

China has demonstrated much worse disasters in Hong Kong and Shanghai and as you yourself proved with your sources even before that it did not had the lowes infection and death rates in the world (not even in the top 10). With the inclusion of the numbers of both failures the reality is clear to see,

except for people in denial that still are trying to prove Hong Kong is not in China.

virusrexToday  03:58 pm JST

No the cases and death increased when the variants entered the country, which made the Zero Covid policy risky and unsustainable. Your "basic facts" can easily be debunked.

No, the cases and deaths increased when people became infected. According to the New Zealand government, those numbers of people infected and related deaths increased as soon as the zero covid restrictions were relaxed.

virusrexToday  04:13 pm JST

Can you give a source of this? or is it again something only you can see? because it clearly contradicts what was observed in reality.

On Monday, health authorities announced 11 new virus-related deaths, all of people aged 60 and over.

That brings the country's death toll to 500, with 86 per cent of New Zealand's total COVID-related deaths having occurred in the past six weeks.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/zealand-hits-500-covid-19-034333878.html

On Monday, health authorities announced 11 new virus-related deaths, all of people aged 60 and over.

So you think New Zealand abandoned the zero covid policy six weeks ago? that is completely false. As proved in the previous reference the increase of cases began before the switch was done, and way before than 6 weeks ago.

Now compare these numbers with the 10 times higher numbers of Hong Kong that continued with the zero covid policy even after it became clear it was not sustainable.

If anything your source proves New Zealand dodged a bullet by abandoning a failing policy so it could avoid becoming another Hong Kong.

No. I am not repeating; I am stating the fact from the article.

No you just repeated your own false conclusion, in the article it was never said that the cases have been the consequence of abandoning the policy, that is all your misrepresentation.

It is not my source--it is news report from Yahoo. 

It is the source you brought, that means it is your source, and it still proves half a year passed between both events, enough so it is obvious they are not related. Much more if the much closer even of Omicron introduction is the obvious cause.

When did NZ move away from its zero covid policy? Were there more covid related infecitons and deaths before, or after?

That has been clearly explained to you already, first delta increase the cases, that made the country abandon the policy which allowed it to stabilize the situaiton, 6 months later omicron entered and cases increased importantly again (but not as much as in China).

Give sources.

I already did, the article have dates. When you ask for sources that have already been provided you only make it seem as you are distracted or confused.

Wrong. Omicron is not the cause. Infections from Omicron would be. This is not a hard point to understand.

Then bring a valid source that support that conclusion, you are still finding sources for several things you keep repeating never to bring any, so you have to add it to the list, Until you bring a source you can't say omicron is not the cause, because you have no authority to do it.

No, it is related because the higher infection rate occurred after the zero covid policy was relaxed.

Again, this needs a reference, in Hong kong the higher infection and death rate also happened (just 10 times more) and they did not abandon the policy. That means the factor you are blaming is unrelated. Specially because it happened so far in time. Hong Kong and Shanghai and Guangzhou prove the opposite of what you say, because they also experience an explosion of cases and deaths not in spite of the zero covid policy, but thanks to it.

The information is from an article on Yahoo.

Take it up with them and the government of New Zealand. Good luck!

And the information is correct, and proves you are wrong. The information on this article where you are commenting does also the same.