Following the continuous outbreaks of the CCP virus in Shenyang and Dalian in Northeast China and the emergence of super-spreaders, Hebei province, which is close to Beijing, reported 19 confirmed cases and 40 asymptomatic infections in its own region from January 2 to 4. The top local official said he was “determined to be a good political ‘moat’ for the capital”. So far, four cities in China have declared a state of emergency and 10 provinces have reemerged in the epidemic. Why is the country considered to have the world’s strictest entry order still unable to stop the virus from invading?
A man wearing a mask prays on the first day of the new year at the Yonghe Palace in Beijing
The reason for the strange situation is that it seems that there are very few cases overseas that have been diagnosed after 14 days of isolation, and Beijing has been quick to trace the source of local outbreaks back to foreign countries.
Hebei declared a state of emergency, and Beijing authorities subsequently announced on the 5th to implement 14+7 quarantine management of people entering Beijing, if an incoming flight is found positive for people, goods or the environment, or is tested positive after 14 days of quarantine, all incoming people in the same class will have to be quarantined for another 7 days in addition to 14 days of centralized quarantine, with specific quarantine either being home isolation or continued centralized quarantine. The quarantine will either be in isolation at home or continue to be centralized. In addition, people entering from other cities in China will be allowed to enter Beijing only after 21 days from the date of entry.
In addition to Beijing, Shenzhen has also implemented 14 + 7 quarantine measures, all entrants in the centralized quarantine 14 days, but also into the community management for another 7 days, Dalian City, the provisions of the entry in the 4 this test are negative, before the release of home isolation. Zhejiang Province has a stricter quarantine with a 14+7+7 quarantine period, which adds up to almost a month.
Official accounts of the cause of the new wave of the outbreak in China are confusing, but mostly refer to it coming from outside the country. On January 5, Feng Zijian, deputy director of the Chinese CDC, said that the virus of the new crown outbreak in Shijiazhuang is an imported virus from outside the country, most likely from Europe. Even after many places have declared the outbreak to be indigenous, they have traced their origins overseas. The earliest outbreak in Tianjin, which was said to have come from foreign imports of frozen packaging and foodstuffs, was denied by many countries, but the source now points more to people and goods entering the country, with most of the Chinese students returning from foreign countries, Chinese expatriates and Chinese people working in foreign countries being the primary targets, in addition to the very few genuine foreign arrivals.
The question that arises from China’s fight against the epidemic is why is there a grim secret that has not been made public, when there are only isolated cases popping up everywhere? Why is it that some cities have to conduct such a large-scale investigation after the emergence of sporadic cases, and the results of the investigation have been officially announced in only a few cases? Or is there another reason: is Beijing afraid of a resurgence of the epidemic, which is currently raging outside China?
Another question is whether the source of the new wave of outbreaks is indigenous cases or imported cases. There is a lot of confusion, but it seems that the source can ultimately be traced back to imported cases or imported contaminated goods. Since December last year, local outbreaks have emerged in Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Beijing in China, and later two couples and their granddaughter in Chengdu, Sichuan Province were reported to have been diagnosed, with the Chengdu Municipal health and Construction Commission of Sichuan Province claiming that the source of the “Chengdu local outbreak” was related to cases imported from outside Nepal, and later the local outbreak in Shunyi, Beijing, was said to be caused by The local outbreak in Shunyi, Beijing, was allegedly caused by an asymptomatic infected person imported from Indonesia. The first confirmed case in Shenyang was also said to have returned from South Korea, and now the outbreak in Shijiazhuang is suspected to be a European virus, with the Chinese side accusing the virus of coming from outside China without any solid scientific evidence, which has also raised questions.
Chinese media are also questioning why China, with the world’s strictest entry order, still cannot stop the epidemic from invading. Phoenix carried an article saying, “In order to reduce the pressure of imported cases, China had already greatly restricted the entry of people from overseas, not only temporarily cancelling previous entry visas for foreigners, but also requiring that entrants have a report of negative nucleic acid tests for the virus …… Since December 23, it has been strengthened to ‘non-essential, no travel’ policy, which not only requires IgM results from venous blood tests, but for direct flights from the U.S., only test reports from the place of departure will be accepted, and sampling must be within 48 hours before boarding”. This does not eliminate 100% of infected people from boarding.
The article questions: “Can we be more strict? Any stricter is a closed door,” and any stricter is a broken flight and stopped cargo. What about Chinese children studying and working abroad? The article argues that the panic has not only led to calls to close the country’s doors, but also to the operation of drawing a blank around the country, with the newspaper citing the example of Beijing University, which has seen rules denying medical students access to its campus.
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