BEIJING – “Finally, after three years, I will be able to see my mother again. She’s elderly, she just turned 88, she’s had Covid and is was lucky to survive. I too got infected last month, I recovered and for this very reason I feel safer to leave, I won’t endanger it. Still have it is an immense joy and I know that every year that passes, for her it could be the last. At her ageat every New Years is important. I have to be there.” Zhang he is a salesman at Wumart, a supermarket chain. In his pocket he has a ticket to Daxinganling, Inner Mongolia. With one hand he pushes her suitcase, with the other he holds boxes of sweets to take to his elderly mother. Like many Chinese migrant workers here in the capital, Zhang hasn’t been home for the holidays since is the pandemic broke out. “I can’t wait to see her again.”
The year of the rabbit is coming and China will be lucky: from rituals to superstition, all the curiosities about the Lunar New Year
by our correspondent Gianluca Modolo
On the freezing morning before New Year’s Eve, thousands storm Beijing’s central station, armed with trolleys of every color and shape, and bags full of packs of instant noodles, essential to face the long hours on the train. Someone gets a last minute swab in the kiosk set up in the square. Yesterday’s is It was one of the busiest days of this exodus which can start again after years of restrictions. Full trains, buses and planes. Until 15 February, the railways are planning two billion journeys (double last year) for the Spring Festival, as the Lunar New Year is called here, which strikes at midnight on Saturday and which will bring China into the year of the rabbit, symbol of peace and prosperity. You go home looking for a hug with your loved ones that has been postponed for too long. Despite fears of a new wave of Covid around the corner.
Zhenginstead (similar name, different person) at station ci is came running, just finished work. She cleans one of the luxury apartment buildings in the Chaoyang district. She still has the luggage to sort out, half open, from which she takes out some toys for her beloved nephew. “She was two years old when I left home last time. She is now five. We video chat almost every day. She said she will comeat pick up at Huludao station, Liaoning. I hope you recognize me. I am happy that finally all the Covid restrictions have been lifted”.
China, the estimate of deaths from Covid is growing: peak of 36 thousand per day with the New Year. Xi: “Worried but we see the light”
by our correspondent Gianluca Modolo
Who of the virus is still worried is instead Jin, a 55-year-old manager of Qiqihaer in Heilongjiang. “I have spent the last three New Years in Beijing alone, afraid of bringing the virus to my family. In my city they tell me that the peak is giat past even if many elderly people died, for many of them there was no more room in the crematoria and relatives had to take their bodies to nearby villages. I haven’t gotten infected yet and despite the excitement of being able to go home I’m a little worried about when I’ll have to go back”.
Same concern they have Meng and his wife, a couple in their thirties, heading to Hulunbeier. Despite the frost, they prefer to wait outside the station until the last minute before boarding their train. “We want to avoid too many gatherings. We are among the very few who have never been infected until now and we do not want to test positive after this long journey”.
The authorities continue to send reassuring messages. Sun Chunlanthe tsarina of the fight against Covid, says the virus is at a “relatively low” level. Beijing says the number of patients admitted to hospital in critical condition is declining. Although a WHO report claims that up to 15 January hospitalizations increased by 70 percent compared to the previous week Despite “the light ahead of us”, it was the same leader Xi Jinping to say worried a few days ago about the impact on rural areas, less equipped. It appears that the virus has already reached many of these places, and even if infections have peaked, things could still get worse. New waves, experts warn, are possible right after the New Year holidays.
Few believe the official numbers. China claims that just under 60,000 people died between December 8 and January 12. The real number is much higher given that the official toll refers only to those who died in hospital: and many doctors have been discouraged from mentioning Covid in their death certificates. The companyat britannica Airfinity estimates 36 thousand deaths a day with the end of the New Year holidays.