For example, the Chinese government has taken down an app that could show whether or not someone was in a high-risk area. “You always had to show this app as well as a statement of a negative test. According to this app, if there were several coronavirus cases in your neighborhood, you would have already been in such an area,” says Eigenraam. By deleting the app, free travel within the country is back to the best possible.
No lockdown, no quarantine
The relaxation concerns are therefore not so much about deleting this app, but about the extremely rapid increase in the number of infections. “No one has to take the test anymore, there are no more blocks or quarantines. The virus is now spreading very rapidly, causing a rush for medicines and the pressure on hospitals is enormous.’
This pressure is particularly strong in the capital Beijing. ‘This city was already an outbreak, the number of cases has been increasing very rapidly here for months. But now it’s spreading like wildfire,’ says Eigenraam. ‘China says it will increase the number of hospital beds, but that number is much lower than in the Netherlands, where it was already low. Now the quarantine beds are also being converted, but they are not intensive care beds ».
Clap for the (world) economy.
China has long been grappling with the zero-covid policy, also because the economy has suffered considerable damage due to the strict policy. But rapid easing does not bode well in this regard, Eigenraam thinks. “If a lot of people start getting sick, this country will go into lockdown again,” especially in the supply chain. “We already see that delivery services are struggling, factories and businesses will close again. The easing was meant to revive the economy, but now that the company is getting back on its feet again, the economy is effectively taking another hit. And this also has consequences for the world economy.’