China’s Ministry of Transport expects more than 2 billion people to travel in the next 40 days.
China on Saturday marked the first day of “chun yun”, the 40-day Lunar New Year travel period known pre-pandemic as the largest annual migration of people, fueling a huge increase in tourists and the spread of COVID-19. infection.
This Lunar New Year public holiday, which officially runs from January 21, will be the first since 2020 without domestic travel restrictions.
In recent months, China has seen a dramatic shift away from a “zero-COVID” regime following historic protests against policies that include frequent testing, restricted movement, mass lockdowns and heavy damage to the world’s No.2 economy.
Investors hope that the reopening will eventually strengthen the $17-trillion economy that is experiencing the lowest growth in nearly half a century.
But the sudden change has exposed much of China’s 1.4 billion population to the virus for the first time, sparking a wave of infections that has weakened some hospitals, emptied drugstore shelves and led to long lines at crematoriums.
China’s Ministry of Transport said on Friday that it expects more than 2 billion passengers to take the trip over the next 40 days, an increase of 99.5% year-on-year and reaching 70.3% of the number of trips in 2019.
Reaction to the news online was mixed, with some commenters expressing the freedom to return to their hometown and celebrate Chinese New Year with family for the first time in years.
Many others, however, said they would not travel this year, with worry of infecting elderly relatives a common theme.
“I don’t dare to go back to my hometown, for fear of bringing back the poison,” said one such commenter on Weibo like Twitter.
There is widespread concern that the massive migration of urban workers to their hometowns will lead to a surge in infections in small towns and rural areas that are poorly equipped with ICU beds and ventilators to deal with them.
Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics, acknowledged the risk on Friday’s note but went on to say that “in the big cities that make up most of China’s economy, the worst is probably over”.
Ernan Cui, an analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics in Beijing, cited several online surveys showing that the current wave of infections has peaked in most areas, saying that “there is no difference between urban and rural areas.”
Sunday marked the reopening of China’s border with Hong Kong and the end of China’s requirement for international travelers to enter quarantine. It effectively opened the door for many Chinese to travel abroad for the first time since the border was closed nearly three years ago, without fear of being quarantined on their return.
More than a dozen countries are now demanding COVID tests from Chinese tourists, as the World Health Organization says China’s official virus data underreported the true extent of the outbreak.
Chinese officials and state media have defended their handling of the outbreak, downplayed the severity of the outbreak and waived foreign travel requirements for its citizens.
On Saturday in Hong Kong, people who had an appointment had to queue for about 90 minutes at the PCR test center required for travel to countries including mainland China.
For much of the pandemic, China poured resources into a massive PCR testing program to track and trace COVID-19 cases, but the focus is now shifting to vaccines and treatments.
In Shanghai, for example, the city government on Friday announced the end of free PCR tests for residents from January 8.
A statement published by four government ministers on Saturday shows the reallocation of financial resources for treatment, outlining a public financial plan to subsidize 60% of treatment costs until March 31.
Meanwhile, sources told Reuters that China is in talks with Pfizer Inc to secure a license that would allow the domestic drugmaker to produce and distribute a generic version of the US firm’s COVID-19 antiviral drug Paxlovid in China.
Many Chinese people try to buy drugs abroad and have them shipped to China.
On the vaccine front, China’s CanSino Biologics Inc announced that it has begun trial production for a COVID-19 mRNA booster vaccine, known as CS-2034.
China already has nine domestically developed COVID vaccines approved for use, including an inactivated vaccine, but none adapted to target the transmissible Omicron variant and its derivatives currently in circulation.
The overall vaccination rate in the country is above 90%, but the rate for adults who had a booster shot dropped to 57.9%, and to 42.3% for people aged 80 and older, according to government data released last month.
China reported three new COVID deaths on the mainland for Friday, bringing the official virus death toll to 5,267, one of the lowest in the world. International health experts believe that Beijing’s narrow definition of COVID deaths does not reflect the true number, with some predicting more than a million fatalities this year.
(Except for headlines, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
