China must stick “unswervingly” to its “zero COVID-19” strategy, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) said yesterday, as more than half of Shanghai’s 25 million lockdown-weary residents gird for a weekend virus testing drive.
China is the last major country still pursuing a policy of stamping out all COVID-19 outbreaks, wielding snap lockdowns, mass testing and mandatory quarantines.
However, the strategy has come under heightened scrutiny after the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 triggered sweeping restrictions in major cities such as Shanghai.
Photo: Bloomberg
Chinese leaders have attempted to thread the needle between crushing the virus and limiting the damage of lockdowns, with Xi on Thursday calling for “efficiently coordinating COVID-19 curbs with economic and social development.”
However, China’s “dynamic zero COVID-19 approach must be unswervingly upheld,” Xinhua news agency reported.
Shanghai, the country’s biggest city and a major global shipping hub, last week loosened many restrictions after containing China’s worst outbreak in two years, but skittish authorities have continued to impose a shifting mosaic of curbs to guard against a resurgence.
Hundreds of thousands of people are still unable to leave their homes, and a city health official on Thursday said that residents in seven districts must get tested for COVID-19 under a drive to “test all who should be tested.”
In many areas, people would be confined to their homes until all samples are collected.
Meanwhile, in the latest sign that Xi might soon make his first trip outside mainland China in years, a Hong Kong school is asking some of its students to undergo a week-long hotel quarantine to greet visiting dignitaries for the 25th anniversary of territory’s handover to China on July 1.
The HKFEW Wong Cho Bau School on Thursday informed parents that its students had been invited to “rare honorable missions” that include attending a ceremony on June 30 to welcome unidentified visitors at the airport.
Meals, transportation and quarantine expenses would be paid by the Hong Kong government, the school said in a notice.
Vice principal Chan Lai-ha (陳麗霞) confirmed the authenticity of the notice and said students would be accompanied by teachers during hotel quarantine from June 23.
Isolated students would attend classes via Zoom, he said.
Alhough government officials have refused to say who is coming, expectations are growing that Xi, who has not traveled outside of mainland China since January 2020, would make a trip to Hong Kong to deliver a speech for the anniversary.
The territory is preparing to isolate about 1,000 people — including Hong Kong chief executive-elect John Lee (李家超) and his predecessor, Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) — ahead of the anniversary to create a closed-loop system for an unspecified Chinese state leader, the South China Morning Post reported.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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