CHINA’S COVID CASES HIT RECORD HIGH; URUMQI ROCKED BY COVID LOCKDOWN PROTESTS

Sat 26 November 2022:

On Saturday, China reported 31,709 new coronavirus infections, while 1,893 patients were discharged from the hospital after making a full recovery over the previous 24 hours.

Only 3,474 of the total new cases showed symptoms, according to a written statement from the National Health Commission (NHC), which added that more than 11.4 million people had been “identified as having had close contact with infected patients.”

More than 1.6 million people are still being monitored by doctors, while 12,624 asymptomatic cases were “freed from medical observation” on Friday, according to the report.

In Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in northwestern China, local officials said COVID-19 cases were cleared from the regional capital Urumqi at the community level and that order would be restored to the lives of residents in low-risk areas “in a phased manner,” according to Global Times.

While the officials said the city still contained high-risk areas, they said there were still about 100 daily confirmed infections over the past two days.

After five consecutive days of no new COVID-19 infections, high-risk areas revert to low-risk status.

Urumqi rocked by Covid lockdown protests

Videos shared on social media in China have appeared to show fresh protests against Covid restrictions, after an apartment block fire killed 10 people.

People in Urumqi are seen confronting officials, breaking down a barrier and shouting “end the Covid lockdown”.

Infections have hit new highs in China in spite of a tough zero-Covid policy.

The Urumqi protests followed a fire in a high-rise building there that killed 10 on Thursday night.

Authorities have said the building’s residents had been able to go downstairs, but videos of emergency crews’ efforts, shared on Chinese social media, led many internet users to surmise that residents could not escape in time because the building was partially locked down.

Urumqi officials abruptly held a news conference in the early hours of Saturday, denying that Covid measures had hampered escape and rescue but saying they would investigate further. One said residents could have escaped faster if they had better understood fire safety.

Xinjiang is home to 10 million Uyghurs. Rights groups and Western governments have long accused Beijing of abuses against the mainly Muslim ethnic minority, including forced labour in internment camps. China strongly rejects such claims.

To date, China, with a population of over 1.4 billion people, has confirmed 304,093 COVID-19 cases.

The country’s death toll stands at 5,232, with 269,116 people recovering from the virus.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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