Coronavirus is gripping China at its worst, with war in Ukraine underway. The ghost of Wuhan of February 2020 is back: the Omicron variant, now dominant, gallops, everywhere. In the last few hours the cases have multiplied throughout the country, creating a real short circuit with respect to the zero-Covid policy reaffirmed by the Plenary of the Chinese Parliament which has just closed its work. The concerns of foreigners and entrepreneurs present in China for some time also filter through, thousands of workers are stuck in factories, visitors to trade fairs trapped between stands with the ban on going out until further notice, while the production and technological supply chain risks a hard blow.
Contagion on the carpet
It is not an area bulletin, now Omicron is the prevailing variant in China. It has bypassed Delta and makes its way with ultrasonic speed: China fights the most serious outbreaks with massive cycles of antigen tests, it is the most serious emergency in two years with a record of 1,807 new cases reported over the weekend.
The latest peaks were in Jilin, northeastern China, Shandong in eastern China, Guangdong provinces in southern China, the municipalities of Shanghai and Beijing, which forced several large cities to blockade, with a sharp increase in the number of asymptomatic patients.
The daily increase in infections exceeded that of confirmed cases for six consecutive days from 7 to 12 March. From February 10 to March 13, the number of confirmed cases increased from seven to 1,807, affecting 26 provinces and regions. One of the most affected places is the province of Jilin, which on Saturday recorded more than 2,100 positive infections in one day, with 1,412 confirmed cases and 744 positive asymptomatic cases.
Increases infectivity
The infectivity of the variant that triggered the epidemic is about 30% higher than that of the previous variant and the ability to reproduce 70 times greater than that of the Delta variant. A local health official admitted this during a press conference in Jilin. The provincial capital, Changchun, has imposed a total blockade to curb the spread of the virus, while the city of Jilin, which has the same name as the province and is only 120 kilometers from Changchun, conducted six rounds of tests of the virus. nucleic acid throughout the city.