A Chinese city will use lockdowns and school and business closures as part of its plan to contain influenza outbreaks, sparking concern among citizens about a return to the country’s economically-crippling Covid restrictions.
(Bloomberg) — A Chinese city will use lockdowns and school and business closures as part of its plan to contain influenza outbreaks, sparking concern among citizens about a return to the country’s economically-crippling Covid restrictions.
With China seeing a resurgence of flu following its reopening Covid outbreak, the city of Xi’an devised a response plan that allows the government to lock down areas of the city if flareups are severe. Officials would also be able to shut schools, entertainment venues and businesses if community spread reaches an acute level.
The plan attracted significant commentary online, with users from around the country expressing alarm that it marked a return to Covid Zero, China’s absolutist pandemic policy that hammered the economy and triggered social unrest before it was abruptly abandoned in December.
Xi’an, home to some 13 million people, was locked down for a month in 2021 to quash a Covid outbreak, with residents largely barred from leaving their homes. Two hospitals were closed after strict enforcement of virus curbs led to patient deaths.
“Is it not enough to torture people last year, that we are thinking of doing it again and again?,” wrote one user on China’s Twitter-like Weibo. “If we have to lock down because of influenza, then won’t we have to lock down every time flu season comes? We will not go backward,” another said.
While the country’s explosive Covid outbreak has ebbed since the government’s sudden abandonment of most curbs in early December, rising flu cases are forcing some schools to suspend classes as kids fall sick and flu antivirals are in short supply.
It’s not unusual for health authorities and local governments in China to draft contingency plans for handling flu strains with pandemic potential. The details laid out in Xi’an reflect similar guidance issued before Covid — and the struggle to contain it — emerged.
Under the four-level response system, the municipal government can take extreme measures including locking down areas with severe outbreaks, shutting businesses, and closing schools and entertainment venues. The rules would go into effect when a new flu virus acquires the capacity for sustained human-to-human transmission, leading to surging community spread that is deemed a grave threat to public health.
The emotions expressed on social media reflect the trauma endured by many in China during the past three years when Beijing doggedly pursued an elimination strategy, even as the virus mutated into stealthy variants that rendered extreme mitigation measures like lockdowns ineffective.
Some fear that the measures used to contain Covid for so long could return as part of the annual effort to control influenza outbreaks.
“The lockdown has freaked people out,” said another netizen on Weibo. The plan “just shows how unpopular sealing off cities is.”
–With assistance from Jinshan Hong.
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