SHANGHAI, Dec 24 (Reuters) – Shanghai authorities urged residents to stay home this weekend, looking for a subdued Christmas in the country’s most populous city as COVID-19 rages across the country after the restrictions are lifted.
A branch of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission on Saturday urged young people in particular to avoid mass gatherings, due to the ease of spread of the coronavirus and low temperatures.
Christmas is not traditionally celebrated in China, but it is common for young couples and some families to spend the holiday together.
Omicron’s variant is rising weeks after authorities abruptly ended their zero-covid policy, lifting strict testing requirements and travel restrictions as China becomes the latest major country to move toward live with the virus
While many have welcomed the relaxation, families and the healthcare system were unprepared for the resulting spike in infections. Hospitals are struggling for beds and blood, pharmacies for drugs and authorities are struggling to build clinics.
Shanghai usually hosts a large Christmas-themed market in an upscale shopping area along Nanjing West Road, and restaurants and retailers offer promotions to boost business.
But the spread of Omicron is putting a damper on the celebrations.
Many restaurants in Shanghai have canceled regular Christmas parties, while hotels have limited bookings due to staff shortages, said Jacqueline Mocatta, who works in the hospitality industry. hospitality
“There’s only a certain amount of customers we can take on given our workforce, with a majority of team members unwell at the moment,” he said.
SKEPTICISM ABOUT THE OFFICIAL DATA
People lamented on social media that they will be staying inside as most of their friends have tested positive for COVID.
“I originally planned to go to Shanghai for Christmas, but now I can only lie in bed,” one person wrote on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social network.
Infections in China are likely more than a million a day with more than 5,000 deaths a day, in “marked contrast” to official figures, British health data firm Airfinity said this week.
China’s national health authority reported 4,128 daily symptomatic COVID-19 infections and no deaths for the fourth straight day on Saturday.
Bloomberg News reported on Friday that nearly 37 million people may have been infected with COVID in a single day last week, citing estimates from the government’s top health authority.
The emergency line in Taiyuan, in northern Shanxi province, was receiving more than 4,000 calls a day, local media said on Saturday.
Taiyuan authorities urged residents to call the number only for medical emergencies, saying guidance on COVID “does not fall within the scope of the hotline.”
A health official in Qingdao said the port city was seeing roughly 500,000 daily infections, media reported on Friday.
In Wuhan, the central city where COVID emerged three years ago, media reported on Friday that the local blood bank had only 4,000 units, enough to last two days. The depot appealed to people to “roll up their sleeves and donate blood”.
Reporting by Josh Horwitz in Shanghai; Edited by William Mallard
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.