image source,Reuters
The streets of Shanghai under lockdown.
The number of confirmed positive cases and asymptomatic infections in Shanghai’s current round of outbreaks caused by the new coronavirus variant Omicron has exceeded 70,000. That number is higher than Hubei province in China, where the virus first emerged: the province has reported 68,391 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since 2020. However, it is worth noting that Shanghai has not yet reported any deaths or severe cases of the new crown, making China’s “dynamic clearing” epidemic prevention policy questionable.
The center sets the tone and insists on clearing
Public opinion previously believed that in the face of an epidemic with asymptomatic infections, Shanghai may make a compromise, choose to “coexist with the virus” to a limited extent, and explore a “precise anti-epidemic” road for other provinces and cities across the country.
image source,Reuters
Shanghai
However, the number of confirmed cases and asymptomatic infections increased rapidly, and grid-based and fragmented nucleic acid screening failed to control the epidemic. In addition to the medical run in Shanghai, Sun Chunlan, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council of China, has since April After going to Shanghai on the 2nd to investigate the epidemic prevention and control work, he set the tone for Shanghai’s general policy of epidemic prevention, that is, adhere to the general policy of “dynamic clearing” without hesitation.
On April 3, 10,000 medical nurses from other places arrived in Shanghai one after another, and some of them settled in makeshift hospitals that treat asymptomatic and mildly infected people. Starting in the early morning of April 4, according to official requirements, all citizens of Shanghai will undergo nationwide nucleic acid testing within one day.
Shanghai, with a population of about 25 million, is the largest city in China. Calculated based on the market cost of 10 yuan per person for nucleic acid mixed testing, the government’s fiscal round of nucleic acid testing expenditure is about 250 million yuan. Previously, Shanghai has conducted multiple rounds of nucleic acid testing in sub-regions.
According to data from the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission: From 0 to 24:00 on April 3, 425 new local confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia and 8,581 asymptomatic infections were added in Shanghai, accounting for nearly 70% of the national total. Within a month, the number of asymptomatic infections in Shanghai has risen from single digits, and there is still a continuing upward trend.
On April 2, China’s official media “People’s Daily” quoted Chen Erzhen, the leader of the medical treatment team at the centralized isolation point in Shanghai, who was the leader of the third batch of medical teams in Shanghai to aid Hubei: “Compared with Wuhan back then, Shanghai is preparing, Experience is better. The scale of this outbreak is bigger than Wuhan, but the severity of the disease is lower than Wuhan.” Chen Erzhen also emphasized that the virulence of the Omicron variant has decreased, the spread has increased, and the spread is very fast, so there are more and more asymptomatic infections, increasing the difficulty of control and great pressure.
From “Precision Epidemic Prevention” to “Precision Spillover”
In the past two years, in response to the Delta virus strain, Shanghai has always pursued a prudent epidemic prevention policy of ācatching mice in ceramic storesāāthat is, controlling the epidemic with the smallest social cost, not only achieving fast tracking, but also ensuring the normal production and life in the city run. Therefore, when major provinces and cities in China pursued a one-size-fits-all “closed city” policy, Shanghai’s “precise anti-epidemic” has won unanimous praise from public opinion and the public.
However, after this round of Shanghai epidemic spilled over, public opinion diverged on Shanghai’s attempt to accurately fight the epidemic, and the Shanghai model has attracted a lot of criticism. A Weibo netizen said: “The positive (in Shanghai) is obviously out of control, which proves that the Shanghai government’s precise epidemic prevention policy has failed. This incident proves that the Shanghai leadership must be adjusted immediately, and then the city’s leading cadres will meet to reflect on the problems that have arisen. Apologies to the people of the country.”
Even though Shanghai currently records about 70,000 confirmed cases and asymptomatic infections, there are no high-risk areas in Shanghai. As of April 4, more than a dozen provinces and cities in China had confirmed cases due to the spillover from Shanghai. Citizens affected by the spillover of the Shanghai epidemic ridiculed its “precise anti-epidemic” as “precise spillover”. According to data from the National Health Commission of China, from 0 to 24:00 on April 3, there were 1,366 new local positive cases and 11,771 asymptomatic infections across China.
In the third year of the new crown epidemic, Western society has gradually opened up, and social life has gradually returned to normal. When Chinese policymakers responded to the epidemic, they began to try to avoid the direct use of the word “closed city”, so as not to attract criticism for the huge cost of strict epidemic prevention policies on social and economic life. Shanghai is no exception. At the end of March, Shanghai was bounded by the Huangpu River, and the old and new urban areas of the city, Pudong and Puxi were separately sealed and controlled, hoping to achieve a social zero.
Shanghai under the run on medical resources
Shanghai currently sends asymptomatic infected persons and mildly ill patients to makeshift hospitals and isolation centers for treatment. Before 10,000 medical nurses reinforced Shanghai, medical staff from all over Shanghai were dispatched to support nucleic acid testing, resulting in a run on medical resources and secondary medical hazards. occur.
At the beginning of April, parents of newborn infants and young children infected with the new coronavirus claimed on the Internet in China that they were forced to be separated from their infants and young children, and that their children were sent to centralized isolation points, and there was a risk of cross-infection and other diseases due to poor care. People from all walks of life have called for parents to be allowed to accompany infants and young children treated in isolation.
The Shanghai official said at a press conference on the epidemic on April 4 that if the parents of the children are also positive infected people, they can accompany them and take care of them in the children’s area, and receive observation and treatment together. For infected children, if their family members do not meet the conditions for accompaniment and the children are younger than 7 years old, they will receive treatment at the public health center; other older children and adolescents, as well as those infected with younger children whose parents meet the conditions of accompaniment, will be mainly treated at centralized treatment points isolation treatment.
On March 23, a nurse in the obstetrics department of Shanghai Dongfang Hospital had an asthma attack at home, which could not be relieved even after self-medication. The family members drove him to the hospital where he worked, but due to the need for epidemic prevention and control, he was not treated in this hospital. Family members took her to other hospitals for treatment, but unfortunately the nurse passed away due to delays in her illness. On March 25, Shanghai Oriental Hospital expressed its deep sadness over the death of the nurse and expressed condolences to her relatives.
On March 30, a video of 120 doctors refusing to lend out defibrillators circulated on the Chinese internet. In the video, the photographer asked the 120 doctor in the car, “Will you die if you change it?”. This is the truest portrayal of doctors facing patients’ life-and-death choices after the run on medical resources in Shanghai.
The video shows an elderly man in Shanghai who had a sudden attack of asthma at home. The situation was serious, and his family immediately called 120 for help. But the ambulance parked downstairs was waiting to take the neighbor to the hospital. The family members of the asthmatic old man wanted to use the defibrillator in the ambulance to rescue the old man, but the doctor in the car refused. The old man with asthma finally died because he missed the best time for treatment. On March 31, the Shanghai Pudong New Area Health and Health Commission released the results of the investigation, saying that although the doctor involved had an emergency treatment task at the time, the treatment was inappropriate and had been suspended.