What have the past two weeks been like for you, your friends, your colleagues and family? Are people still going to work? Are kuaidi still delivering? Please share which part of China you are in and what your experiences have been.
Omicron spread in China is truly insane. For example my daughter reports in one class of 50 students 48 are sick. In her class of 50 about half are sick. They went back to online classes temporarily to try to slow down the spread. Two weeks since end of Zero COVID!
It is kind of interesting for students because finals week is next and the following week. So apparently if you get sick you don't have to do the finals, I guess they will do them later. It's going to be a mess.
Ibuprofen, Tylenol have disappeared from the pharmacies and there is some pressure on non-emergency COVID hospitals, but it's not that bad. Chinese hospitals are always crowded. It's like a bad flu season, for now anyway.
Some reports that delivery drivers and nurses are getting sick in large numbers and so it's affecting some services.
No major reports of deaths, but it's probably too early. Still, while the situation can be described as "crazy" and "chaotic" it is not "tragic". People are generally good-humored on social media, there are plenty of memes and jokes, some complaints about this or that, but that's normal too. It's actually less chaotic than that infamous Shanghai lockdown when people literally starved (though not to death) because all the services collapsed.
It's like a tornado passing through, so everyone hunkers down, tries to survive and knows that pretty much there is nothing that can be done.
Increase in respiratory flu like illnesses in densely populated China is understandable. In a way this a payback for the policies of isolation that China has enacted for the past 3 years. People are naturally catching-up on strains they have managed to avoid because of reduced contacts with outside world. Like every flu pandemic in Northern hemisphere it is going to subside in January and have another smaller peak in March to go down to the base levels later in spring and summer, but to gradually come back in fall time. This is a pattern that is as old as humanity itself. PCR tests detecting COVID and even more specifically Omicron variant are less than reliable. Best way to judge the type of infection that people are getting is by symptoms. As we all know from our own experience during flu season prevalent strain produces very similar symptoms in people. There are of course variations depending on the person's general health and the state of immune system, but still we can see clear patterns of the similar symptoms. Wishing Chinese people not to panic, not to lockdown country again, but to be guided by common sense and by the well proven treatment methods practiced in Chinese traditional medicine.
Water and juice, everyone wants it, and almost nobody has it!
Saturday night fever made for a great weekend here in Shanghai.
Indigestion was the match that set the fever demons on fire for me.
A report from Shandong shared by a reader:
Omicron spread in China is truly insane. For example my daughter reports in one class of 50 students 48 are sick. In her class of 50 about half are sick. They went back to online classes temporarily to try to slow down the spread. Two weeks since end of Zero COVID!
It is kind of interesting for students because finals week is next and the following week. So apparently if you get sick you don't have to do the finals, I guess they will do them later. It's going to be a mess.
Ibuprofen, Tylenol have disappeared from the pharmacies and there is some pressure on non-emergency COVID hospitals, but it's not that bad. Chinese hospitals are always crowded. It's like a bad flu season, for now anyway.
Some reports that delivery drivers and nurses are getting sick in large numbers and so it's affecting some services.
No major reports of deaths, but it's probably too early. Still, while the situation can be described as "crazy" and "chaotic" it is not "tragic". People are generally good-humored on social media, there are plenty of memes and jokes, some complaints about this or that, but that's normal too. It's actually less chaotic than that infamous Shanghai lockdown when people literally starved (though not to death) because all the services collapsed.
It's like a tornado passing through, so everyone hunkers down, tries to survive and knows that pretty much there is nothing that can be done.
Increase in respiratory flu like illnesses in densely populated China is understandable. In a way this a payback for the policies of isolation that China has enacted for the past 3 years. People are naturally catching-up on strains they have managed to avoid because of reduced contacts with outside world. Like every flu pandemic in Northern hemisphere it is going to subside in January and have another smaller peak in March to go down to the base levels later in spring and summer, but to gradually come back in fall time. This is a pattern that is as old as humanity itself. PCR tests detecting COVID and even more specifically Omicron variant are less than reliable. Best way to judge the type of infection that people are getting is by symptoms. As we all know from our own experience during flu season prevalent strain produces very similar symptoms in people. There are of course variations depending on the person's general health and the state of immune system, but still we can see clear patterns of the similar symptoms. Wishing Chinese people not to panic, not to lockdown country again, but to be guided by common sense and by the well proven treatment methods practiced in Chinese traditional medicine.