Beijing: In December, China abruptly abandoned its “Zero Covid” policies amid a surge of infections and rising public anger against lockdowns.
Covid cases again are on the rise, but this time the nation appears to be determined to press on with normal life as the government focuses on reigniting economic growth, New York Times reported.
Though other countries have long settled into such a pattern, it is a shift for China. Until late last year, its national leadership was still ready to lock down whole neighbourhoods and districts, even cities, in a bid to stamp out what were sometimes just small clusters of cases.
The New York Times is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership.
The Chinese health authorities have reported a rise in Covid cases since April, especially from newer subvariants spreading worldwide.
Zhong Nanshan, a prominent doctor who was among the first to openly confirm in early 2020 that Covid could easily spread among people, estimated earlier this week that by late June as many as 65 million people a week could become infected with the coronavirus across China.
That would be up from what he estimated at 40 million infections a week in late May. China no longer publishes regular official nationwide estimates of infections, New York Times reported.
