China Eases Some COVID-19 Restrictions as Protests Sweep Country
A literal spark lit the blaze of protests that have spread across China over the past several days, as thousands have turned out to demonstrate against the government’s longstanding “Zero COVID” policy and its related lockdowns. Last Thursday, a fire broke out in an apartment complex in the western city of Urumqi, killing 10 people and injuring nine. Locals complained that gates, barricades, and other obstacles that had been set up to quarantine the building slowed the response of firefighters.
As CNN reports, Urumqi had been under lockdown for more than 100 days, and by Friday morning, residents were marching on a local government building demanding that the quarantine be lifted. Over the weekend and into today, the protests quickly spread to at least 16 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing, and Wuhan, where COVID-19 first emerged. Protesters held up blank sheets of white paper—a symbolic protest against censorship—and in both Shanghai and Beijing called for Chinese President Xi Jinping to step down. “We don’t want a leader, we want votes,” chanted the Beijing demonstrators, as my colleague Chad de Guzman reports.
The demonstrations come at a time when China is experiencing a COVID-19 surge, hitting a one-day record of more than 40,000 cases today. But that has not cooled the fury of protesters who have watched as much of the rest of the world has opened up even as Beijing continues its draconian Zero COVID rules, under which the government aims to identify and isolate every person with the disease.
At times, the protests turned violent. Police clashed with demonstrators in Shanghai, and Ed Lawrence, a reporter for the BBC, was arrested and later released, but not before being beaten and kicked by reporters, Lawrence alleges. A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told CNN that Lawrence did not identify himself or “voluntarily present his press credentials.” The spokesman also said that police were trying to protect Lawrence from contracting COVID-19 from the crowd. (“We do not consider this a credible explanation,” said the BBC in a statement.)
The mere fact that the protests are taking place is surprising in China, where demonstrations are strictly forbidden and quickly crushed. That Xi’s name was raised makes the uprising even more shocking.
“Until recently, most Chinese people were very scared about the efficiency and the magnitude of the repressive organs of China, and they wouldn’t move a finger,” Jean Pierre Cabestan, emeritus professor of political science at Hong Kong Baptist University, told Chad. But the recent protests show just how much people are “fed up with the current situation and think things have to change.”
That change is coming—albeit slowly. Today, the Chinese government announced a slight loosening of some restrictions. In Beijing, for example, officials will no longer set up blockades to prevent entry to apartment compounds where infections have been found. In Guangzhou, a recent hotspot of infections, mass testing requirements will be eased. And in Urumqi, some markets and other businesses will be allowed to reopen, CNN reports, and bus service will resume.
Still, the government does not currently plan to abandon its Zero COVID policy entirely. “Facts have fully proved that each version of the prevention and control plan has withstood the test of practice,” a government commentator wrote in the People’s Daily, the official party newspaper, according to the Associated Press.
More than 641.5 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 A.M. today, and over 6.6 million people have died. On Nov. 27, there were 251,452 new cases and 504 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending, in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 10 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 98.5 million coronavirus cases as of 1 A.M. today. Nearly 1.08 million people had died. On Nov. 27, there were 4,355 new cases reported in the U.S., and 0 deaths were confirmed.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Nov. 28. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts,click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
The protests in China and the government’s insistence on continuing its Zero COVID policy are reverberating around the world, as global markets are falling today in reaction to unrest in the world’s second largest economy, reports the New York Times . Markets across Europe opened broadly lower, as did those in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and China itself. The U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average opened sharply lower as well, and the Chinese yuan tumbled against the dollar this morning. Economic growth had already slowed and unemployment had risen in China as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns, and the current protests, investors say, makes a bleak picture look all the more unsettled.
More than nine in ten COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are in people 65 and older, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID-19 was always known to hit seniors harder than other age groups, but the 90% rate is the highest it’s ever been throughout the course of the pandemic. The share of total COVID-19 deaths made up by seniors was eight out of 10 in the first few months of the pandemic, then fell to a low of six out of 10 during the Delta wave, and then rose to its high of nine out of 10 today. Part of the reason for the high rates of deaths among seniors is the low rate of booster uptake in that group. According to the CDC, only 22% of people ages 65 to 74 have received the new bivalent shot.
New York City’s rat population is one more reservoir for SARS-CoV-2, according to a new study by the University of Missouri and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Of 79 rats captured and tested, 13—or 16.5%—were carrying the virus. The rats, which were tested in the fall of 2021, were infected not just with the original SARS-CoV-2, but with the Delta, Alpha, and Omicron variants as well. The authors of the paper warned that the findings suggest zoonotic transmission from rats to humans could be possible.
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Today's newsletter was written by Jeffrey Kluger and edited by Mandy Oaklander.
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