CHINA: World economic leaders on Friday welcomed China’s departure from its strict zero-tolerance Covid policy, with the IMF chief saying “decisive steps” would help restore growth in the country and globally. .
The World Trade Organization chief said after a conference hosted by outgoing Premier Li Keqiang in the eastern Chinese city of Huangshan that the easing would help support the global economy struggling with the effects of the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I will help.
Beijing on Wednesday loosened its zero-tolerance approach to the coronavirus outbreak, lifting mass lockdowns and allowing some positive cases to be isolated at home after mass protests against the restrictions. announced.
The decision signaled that the world’s second-largest economy is finally getting to grips with Covid after years of grinding to a halt and halting growth.
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said at a press briefing, “We very much welcome the decisive steps taken by the Chinese authorities to realign their Covid policies in order to restore growth in China.” A better motivation can be created.” Heads of other major economic institutions.
Georgieva added that efforts to boost vaccination rates and antiviral treatment are “great for the Chinese people, but also important for Asia and the rest of the world”.
“China’s performance matters (not only) for China — it matters for the global economy.”
The global economy has been rocked this year, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine adding to the post-pandemic recovery and cost of living crisis in many countries.
At the same briefing, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that the move to zero Covid would “help remove a set of uncertainties” in a world reeling from the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the effects of climate change. .
“The adjustment will support the strengthening of the recovery in China and globally,” said Matthias Cormann, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Beijing’s zero-covid retreat has helped support global stock markets on fears of a looming recession in the US, but analysts warn China’s path to a full reopening remains difficult.
Long criticized for disrupting business operations and global supply chains, the zero-covid policy has acted as a drag on China’s economy, with analysts expecting Beijing to miss its stated annual growth target of 5.5 percent. will be lost.
Public frustration with snap lockdowns and widespread vetting boiled over last month as protesters took to the streets in cities across the country, some demanding greater political freedoms in China’s biggest protests since 1989. What did
On Friday, China rolled back further restrictions, with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announcing that visitors would no longer be required to show “health codes” when entering a range of destinations.
A spokesman for the National Health Commission (NHC) said at a press briefing that hospitals should not refuse care to patients positive for the coronavirus, JEE News reported.
The move marks another departure from China’s long-standing strategy of isolating all those who test positive and treating them in state-run quarantine facilities.
JEE News quoted the NHC’s Jiao Yahui as saying that some of these facilities will now be “transformed into sub-designated hospitals… equipped with specialized treatment facilities” including 10 percent of the berths for “observation and care”. are reserved for
Concerns about a possible large-scale outbreak have fueled demand for home remedies and personal protective equipment, although official statistics have reported a drop in new cases in recent days.
China’s market regulator said on Friday it would crack down on price gouging after the retail price of a traditional flu treatment quadrupled in the first few days of December.
Meanwhile, an iPhone megafactory in central China announced it was scrapping months of virus-proof “closed-loop” systems that had plagued production of Apple gadgets.
The Foxconn facility in Zhengzhou was in effective lockdown for 56 days, with workers only allowed to travel on shuttle buses between their dormitories and the factory floor after the infections were discovered in October.
Foxconn said in a social media post that employees can now return to work with a negative Covid test in the last 48 hours, in line with “further lifting of China’s epidemic control measures”.
