Coronavirus: Chinese city pushes ‘flu-like’ Omicron message as zero-Covid rules eased despite rise in cases
- Guangzhou officials underline reduced virulence of Omicron and its subvariants, as several districts ease zero-Covid restrictions despite rising cases
- Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan has said Omicron is more transmissible but less deadly, signalling a new chapter in China’s pandemic response
Covid-19 is now no more serious than a seasonal cold and there is no need to panic, Guangzhou health authorities sought to assure the public, as pandemic controls were relaxed in several districts of the southern Chinese factory hub despite rising caseloads.
Coronavirus: Guangzhou districts signal easing of Covid restrictions
In a public service message broadcast on Friday, a group of health experts in Guangzhou said symptoms caused by the Omicron subvariants behind the current wave were very mild and similar to those for seasonal colds.
“The virulence of the new coronavirus [Omicron] has now evolved to the level of the seasonal flu, and some are even less virulent than the flu, so you really don’t need to panic,” said Tang Xiaoping, director of the No 8 People’s Hospital in Guangzhou and head of the national key clinical department of infectious diseases.
The joint statement came as several Guangzhou districts moved to lift area lockdowns and relax Covid-19 controls, which had seen demonstrators clash with police and community workers in hazmat suits in the hardest-hit Haizhu district just days earlier.
Authorities said close contacts of patients eligible for home quarantine should do so as well, and only close contacts were to be tested instead of the launch of mass testing.
Guangzhou, the capital of manufacturing powerhouse Guangdong province, reported 4,922 infections on Saturday. Total cases in the wave since late October have reached 162,700, with 90 per cent of them asymptomatic.
Only four cases were classified as “severe and critical”, and no deaths were recorded, Guangzhou health commission deputy director Zhang Yi said on Friday.
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“This shows that the virulence of the Omicron variant is significantly lower than previous original strains and other mutant strains,” she said.
“This is not only the characteristic of the Omicron mutant strain, but also related to the improvement of the population’s vaccination immunity and the active prevention measures adopted by our country.”
Tang noted that more than 90 per cent of infected patients had no symptoms and mild cases received the same treatment as that for flu.
“Many of my friends were also infected with the coronavirus, but they soon recovered without special treatment. So I’d like to tell the general public that you should not panic too much,” he said.
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Zhang Zhongde, director of the Guangdong Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said Omicron mainly affected only the upper respiratory tract.
“The symptoms of the Omicron can be said to be ‘flu-like’, and milder than some severe flu cases,” he said.
Guangzhou authorities have asked hospitals and pharmacies to let people in as long as they can show a green health code on China’s app-based Covid tracking system. But patients seeking hospitalisation and their attendants are still required to provide a negative PCR result from within the previous 24 hours.
China is battling its largest outbreak since a spring wave that triggered months of lockdown in Shanghai. Cases nationwide rose to 32,827 on Saturday, with Guangdong province and the cities of Beijing and Chongqing reporting the highest caseloads.
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Cities including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Tianjin and Chengdu said negative PCR test results were no longer needed for entry to public places, such as shopping malls, office buildings, buses, subways and parks, though some still require visitors to register their presence using the health code app.
Beijing, which reported 3,313 infections on Saturday, has scrapped Covid-19 restrictions on using public transport, with PCR test results no longer required from Monday.
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Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan, who has led China’s Covid-19 battle for the last three years, signalled a new chapter in the country’s pandemic response last week when she said the Omicron variant was more transmissible but less deadly.
Following a meeting with National Health Commission experts on Wednesday, Sun said the country was “facing a new situation and new tasks as the pathogenicity of the Omicron virus diminishes, vaccination becomes more widespread and experience [grows] in prevention and control”.
