That means China’s economy, which is already suffering its worst downturn in more than three decades apart from the pandemic’s first year in 2020, is likely to endure further weakness before the benefits of reopening fully kick in next year, economists say.
In Beijing, Covid caseloads are swelling, prompting worried citizens to self-isolate at home and stockpile medications. Shopping malls have cut opening hours as foot traffic has dwindled. Delivery services have been disrupted as infected workers are barred from hitting the road, according to interviews with residents and discussions on social media platforms.
Similar patterns are appearing in other large cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, where many people have begun avoiding gathering in public since authorities suddenly abandoned the government’s zero-Covid approach last week.
A Covid quarantine center in Shanghai, another city where people have begun avoiding gathering in public.
Photo:
Qilai Shen/Bloomberg News
Qian Yingqin
and her daughter haven’t left their compound in Beijing’s Haidian district since Sunday, when her husband tested positive for Covid. Concerned about her 72-year-old mother, who hasn’t been vaccinated, 40-year-old Ms. Qian urged her not to leave her apartment for at least a month.
“I’ve never seen fewer people on the streets and more people wearing masks outside in the past three years,” said Ms. Qian, who also postponed a planned trip with her daughter to Dali, a tourism hot spot in southwestern China. “It’s simply impossible to fend off the virus anymore.”
After barely budging on its pandemic-containment strategy for much of the past three years, Beijing made a U-turn after protests broke out last month among people frustrated with the government’s tough restrictions on public behavior. Those restrictions included frequent testing for people to gain access to public areas, forced quarantines and lockdowns in areas where cases were detected.
Chinese officials worried that the rules were taking too big a toll on…
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