China sets up sites as Covid cases rise

THE southern Chinese city of Guangzhou is setting up makeshift hospitals and quarantine sites with capacity for nearly 250 000 beds for Covid-19 infections, officials said yesterday, as cases across the country hit their highest level since April.

China is battling Covid-19 outbreaks in numerous major cities, including Chongqing and the capital Beijing, while it takes steps to try to ease the burden of its strict zeroCovid-19 policy, which has caused severe economic damage and widespread frustration nearly three years into the pandemic.

In the hard-hit central city of Zhengzhou, authorities said they would investigate the death of a 4-month-old whose father said she was denied timely treatment while they were in central quarantine, the latest such case to stir online anger.

Guangzhou, a manufacturing hub home to 19 million people, is battling China’s largest, latest outbreak, with new daily infections of Covid-19 rising to 8 761 and raising concerns that it is reaching a scale matching Shanghai’s outbreak earlier this year.

Earlier this week, people rampaged through the city’s worst-hit district, which has been under lockdown, in a rare demonstration of protest.

A Guangzhou official said yesterday the city was accelerating construction of makeshift hospitals and isolation sites, with plans to build space for 246 407 beds.

“It is better to be prepared, even if they go unused,” said Wang Baosen, the official.

At the height of Shanghai’s outbreak in April, which included a twomonth lockdown, the city counted more than 300 000 beds.

China reported 23 276 new infections yesterday, the most since April and up from 20 199 a day earlier.

The country has begun to loosen some curbs related to mass-testing and quarantine for overseas arrivals, boosting optimism that China is moving towards a re-opening and economic activity could pick up again, although analysts don’t expect significant easing before March or April.

Experts warn full reopening requires a massive vaccination booster effort, and would need a change in messaging in a country where Covid-19 remains widely feared despite overall case numbers being low by global standards.

Officials have ordered local authorities to stop using “one-size-fits-all” approaches, and said the public needs to be granted access to medical care and food even during lockdowns.

However, China continues to defend its approach to Covid-19, a signature policy of President Xi Jinping that it argues saves lives.