How Omicron variant of coronavirus led to bursting of China’s zero-Covid dykes

Effectiveness of strict lockdowns and mass testing waned as economic and social costs mounted

Experts say China wasted almost an entire year that could have been used to prepare population for change

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Published: 6:00am, 11 Jan 2023Updated: 9:01am, 11 Jan 2023

After three years of tough pandemic controls, China’s sudden U-turn on its zero-Covid policy last month has brought relief but also anxiety that the country is unprepared for the surge in cases. In the second of a five-part series on the policy change and its impact, Josephine Ma looks at the Omicron-induced collapse of the zero-Covid strategy.

Part of Guangzhou, the capital of southern China’s Guangdong province, made headlines around the world in mid-November when violent clashes erupted between angry migrant workers and police in hazmat suits.

Rare scenes of civil unrest in mainland China were repeated later that month when more protests against prolonged epidemic-control lockdowns broke out in cities including Urumqi, Beijing, Shanghai and Zhengzhou.

Edmund Huang, a property agent in Lujiang, in Guangzhou’s Haizhu district, said most people in the area had been infected with the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 even though it had been locked down for two months from around October 20, with all residents subjected to swab tests every one or two days.

“Over 90 per cent of the residents were infected,” he said. “People were infected even though they were locked in their homes. Everyone I know was infected.”

02:17

WHO says China under-representing real impact of its latest Covid-19 surge

While China succeeded in containing Covid-19 during the first two years of the pandemic, the emergence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus last year changed all that. The authorities tried hard to snuff out one Omicron outbreak after another, beginning in Tianjin in January last year, using extreme measures such as strict lockdowns and testing tens of millions of people.

SCMP Series

China’s reopening: the impact of Beijing’s U-turn on zero-Covid

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How Omicron variant of coronavirus led to bursting of China’s zero-Covid dykes

Effectiveness of strict lockdowns and mass testing waned as economic and social costs mounted Experts say China wasted almost an entire year that could have been used to prepare population for change

Effectiveness of strict lockdowns and mass testing waned as economic and social costs mounted

Experts say China wasted almost an entire year that could have been used to prepare population for change