China

BAZHOU, China (AP) — Nearly three years after it was first identified in China, the coronavirus is now spreading through the vast country. Experts predict difficult months ahead for its 1.4 billion people.

China’s unyielding “zero-COVID” approach, which aimed to isolate all infected people, bought it years to prepare for the disease. But an abrupt reopening, which was announced without warning on Dec. 7 in the wake of anti-lockdown protests, has caught the nation under-vaccinated and short on hospital capacity.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Dec 22 (Reuters) - A Shanghai hospital has told its staff to prepare for a "tragic battle" with COVID-19 as it expects half of the city's 25 million people will get infected by the end of next week, while the virus sweeps through China largely unchecked.

After widespread protests against strict mitigation measures, China this month began dismantling its "zero-COVID" regime, which had taken a great financial and psychological toll on its 1.4 billion people.

BEIJING, Dec 21 (APP): China will provide maximum convenience for cross-border personnel exchanges as needed to maintain the stability of global industry supply chain, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Mao Ning said on Wednesday.

“Since COVID began nearly three years ago by taking a coordinated response approach and engaging in‚ win-win cooperation, China has been one of the first countries to achieve economic reopening, and has actively pursued high-level opening-up, she said in her routine briefing.

BEIJING/SINGAPORE, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Cities across China scrambled to install hospital beds and build fever screening clinics on Tuesday as authorities reported five more deaths and international concern grew about Beijing's surprise decision to let the virus run free.

China this month began dismantling its stringent "zero-COVID" regime of lockdowns and testing after protests against curbs that had kept the virus at bay for three years but at a big cost to society and the world's second-largest economy.

BEIJING (AP) — The death toll in the latest COVID-19 surge in China’s capital Beijing has risen incrementally, as feverish clinic patients and an increase in the funeral business point to a widening outbreak after an easing of strict virus containment regulations.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese health authorities on Monday announced two additional COVID-19 deaths, both in the capital Beijing, that were the first reported in weeks and come during an expected surge of illnesses after the nation eased its strict “zero-COVID” approach.

China had not reported a death from COVID-19 since Dec. 4, even though unofficial reports of a new wave of cases are widespread.

BEIJING, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Streets in major Chinese cities were eerily quiet on Sunday as people stayed home to protect themselves from a surge in COVID-19 cases that has hit urban centres from north to south.

China is in the first of an expected three waves of COVID cases this winter, according to the country's chief epidemiologist, Wu Zunyou. Further waves will come as people follow the tradition of returning en masse to their home areas for the Lunar New Year holiday next month, he said.

BEIJING (AP) — Outside a funeral home in eastern Beijing, dozens of people were bundled up in parkas and hats against the freezing temperatures Friday evening as workers in full protective suits wheeled out coffins one by one.

When an employee with a clipboard shouted the name of the dead, a relative trundled up to the coffin to examine the body. One of the relatives told The Associated Press their loved one had been infected with COVID-19.

BEIJING, Dec 16 (Reuters) - President Xi Jinping and his senior officials pledged to shore up China's battered economy next year as the deaths of two veteran state journalists highlighted the worsening spread of COVID-19 in the capital Beijing.

Xi and his leaders ended their two-day Central Economic Work Conference with a call, via state media, to step up policy adjustments and strengthen coordination to support an economy that analysts estimate grew just 3% this year - its worst performance in nearly half a century.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s Cabinet ordered rural areas Friday to prepare for the return of migrant workers this holiday season in hopes of preventing a major surge in COVID-19 cases in communities with limited medical resources.

Returnees must wear masks and avoid contact with elderly people and village committees must monitor their movements, the guidelines said, but didn’t mention the possibility of isolation or quarantines.