Covid cases flare up despite Chinese lockdowns, create chaos ahead of party congress

Ahead of 20th National Party Congress in which Xi Jinping is set to secure a third term in power, the Chinese authorities have scaled up the restrictions locking down regions and cities and mandating quarantines, disrupting lives of people and drawing widespread public complaints.

Ahead of 20th National Party Congress in which Xi Jinping is set to secure a third term in power, the Chinese authorities have scaled up the restrictions locking down regions and cities and mandating quarantines, disrupting lives of people and drawing widespread public complaints. With sudden Covid flare-ups ahead of the Chinese Communist Party meeting, the authorities are enforcing a "zero Covid" policy in an excessive manner on Chinese citizens to eliminate infections, despite the massive economic slump in the country, The New York Times reported.

Moreover, the residents of less-developed regions are bearing the brunt of strict covid lockdowns as food and medicine shortages have been common in such regions. Liu Sushe, the vice chairman of the Xinjiang region, conceded this week that the area of 22 million people was facing its most difficult public health emergency ever, according to The New York Times.

Earlier on Tuesday, China's Xinjiang province effectively banned residents and visitors from leaving, blocking all trains and buses from departing the region and stopping most flights. Similar situations came into light in other regions of Beijing, most notably in Shanghai earlier this year and in Tibet a few weeks ago, and have led to anger about the human and economic toll of the harsh measures that Xi Jinping government has imposed on Chinese citizens.

The world is being shown a country like China handling the outbreak in a harmonious way, but the reality apparently is far from that. The measures being taken are too severe and not in the interest of the public at all. China was the centre of the COVID-19 outbreak in the world, the whole suffered millions of deaths in the past 2 years. But when entire China and many parts of the world were reeling under the coronavirus crisis, Tibet remained untouched except for one case at the beginning of the pandemic. Tibet did not see a Covid-19 case for over 900 days.

While most of the world is free from coronavirus infections, many Chinese provinces are suffering from the viral disease. Now, Tibet has also come under its grip, for which people are blaming Chinese agencies, reported Tibet Press. The outbreak in Tibet began on August 7, 2022, and the lockdowns started happening right afterwards.

More than 6 million cases of COVID-19 infection have been registered since the beginning of the pandemic in mainland China, with 24,806 related deaths. Parts of China have reported a sudden surge in the COVID-19 virus and the outbreak of the fifth wave has forced the citizens to once again face the authoritarian government's unending restrictions.

The recurring outbreak of rampant infection in the country, despite China's strong measures, speaks of the failure of Xi Jinping's so-called "zero-COVID policy" which has upended daily life and dealt a heavy blow to the slowing economy. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)