China’s deadly coronavirus wave

Today in Focus

The Guardian

Daily News, News

4.6 • 5.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Having spent much of the last three years with some of the world’s most strict Covid restrictions, China’s relaxing of its rules has coincided with a massive wave of infections just as the country prepares to celebrate the lunar new year. Tania Branigan reports. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Guardian.
0:08.6	Today, China ends virtually all COVID restrictions.
0:12.3	How its gigantic COVID wave will be felt around the world.
0:21.5	For the past three years, we've heard a lot that COVID-19 has spread around the world,
0:26.0	leaving virtually no family or community unscathed.
0:30.0	But that isn't really true.
0:31.9	For one-fifth of humanity, China's population of 1.4 billion people.
0:37.2	The virus has been held at bay
0:39.8	by the harshest COVID restrictions in the world.
0:45.6	Zero COVID means lockdowns.
0:47.6	It means mass testing.
0:49.2	And it means anyone who tests positive,
0:51.4	going to a government-run quarantine centre.
0:53.8	Also in Shanghai, we've seen officials in hazmat suits disinfecting the streets
0:58.2	and fences to stop people leaving their flats.
1:01.2	Now, all of a sudden, most of those restrictions are gone.
1:05.3	And in the cruel way that's become so familiar to the rest of us,
1:09.6	COVID-19 is smashing through Chinese cities and towns.
1:18.8	One doctor quoted by the state media calls this
1:21.3	a pandemic tsunami.
1:28.6	On sheer numbers and the speed with which it's spreading,
1:31.7	this might be the biggest COVID wave in any country so far.
	...

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