New COVID-19 cases surged in Guangzhou and other Chinese cities, official data showed yesterday, with the global manufacturing hub becoming China’s latest COVID-19 epicenter and testing the city’s ability to avoid a Shanghai-style lockdown.
Nationwide, new locally transmitted infections rose to 7,475 on Monday, China’s health authority said, up from 5,496 the day before and the highest since May 1. Guangzhou accounted for nearly one-third of the new infections.
The increase was modest by global standards, but significant for China, where outbreaks are to be quickly tackled when they surface under its “zero COVID” policy. Economically vital cities, including Beijing, are demanding more polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for residents and locking down neighborhoods and even districts in some cases.
Photo: Bloomberg
The sharp rebound will test China’s ability to keep its virus measures surgical and targeted, and could dampen investors’ hopes that its economy could ease curbs and restrictions soon.
“We are seeing a game between rising voices for loosening controls and rapid spreading of COVID cases,” said Nie Wen, a Shanghai-based economist at Hwabao Trust.
Considering how the nationwide COVID-19 curbs are crushing domestic consumption, Nie said he had downgraded his fourth-quarter economic growth forecast to about 3.5 percent from 4 to 4.5 percent. The economy grew 3.9 percent in July-September.
The rising caseload dragged on China’s stock markets yesterday, but shares have not yet surrendered last week’s big gains.
Investors see China’s beaten-down markets as an attractive prospect as a global slowdown looms, and have focused on small clues of gradual change — such as more targeted lockdowns and progress on vaccination rates.
“No matter how harsh the letter of the law is ... there is a little bit more loosening,” said Damien Boey, chief macro strategist at Australian investment bank Barrenjoey.
Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, reported 2,377 new local cases for yesterday, up from 1,971 the previous day. It was a dramatic jump from double-digit increases two weeks ago.
Surging case numbers in the sprawling city, dubbed the “factory floor of the world,” means Guangzhou has surpassed the Inner Mongolia city of Hohhot to become China’s COVID-19 epicenter, in its most serious outbreak ever.
Many of Guangzhou’s districts, including Haizhu, have imposed varying levels of curbs and lockdowns, but it has not imposed a blanket lockdown like the one in Shanghai earlier this year.
Shanghai, currently not facing a virus resurgence, went into a lockdown in April and May after reporting several thousand new infections daily in the last week of March.
“We have been working from home for the past couple of days,” said Aaron Xu, who runs a company in Guangzhou. “Only a few compounds have been locked up so far. Mostly we are seeing disruptions in the form of public transit services being suspended and compound security barring couriers and food delivery. And we have to do PCR tests every day.”
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant