Scarred by Covid-19 ‘torture’, Chinese concerned by lockdown plans to curb flu outbreaks
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Xi’an city devised a response plan that allows the government to lock down areas of the city if flare-ups are severe.
PHOTO: AFP
BEIJING - A Chinese city will use lockdowns, as well as school and business closures, as part of its plan to contain influenza outbreaks, sparking concern among citizens about a return to the country’s economically-crippling Covid-19 restrictions.
With China seeing a resurgence of flu following its reopening after the Covid-19 outbreak, the city of Xi’an has devised a response plan that allows the government to lock down areas of the city if flare-ups are severe.
Officials would also be able to shut schools, entertainment venues and businesses if community spread reaches an acute level.
The plan attracted significant commentary online, with users from around the country expressing alarm that it marked a return to zero-Covid-19, China’s absolutist pandemic policy that hammered the economy and triggered social unrest before it was abruptly abandoned in December.
Xi’an, home to some 13 million people, was locked down for a month in 2021 to quash a Covid-19 outbreak, with residents largely barred from leaving their homes.
Two hospitals were closed after strict enforcement of virus curbs led to patient deaths.
“Is it not enough to torture people last year, that we are thinking of doing it again and again?,” wrote one user on China’s Twitter-like Weibo.
“If we have to lock down because of influenza, then won’t we have to lock down every time flu season comes? We will not go backward,” another said.
While the country’s explosive Covid-19 outbreak has ebbed since the government’s sudden abandonment of most curbs in early December, rising flu cases are forcing some schools to suspend classes as children fall sick and flu antivirals are in short supply.
It is not unusual for health authorities and local governments in China to draft contingency plans for handling flu strains with pandemic potential.
The details laid out in Xi’an reflect similar guidance issued before Covid-19 – and the struggle to contain it – emerged.
Under the four-level response system, the municipal government can take extreme measures including locking down areas with severe outbreaks, shutting businesses, and closing schools and entertainment venues.
The rules would go into effect when a new flu virus acquires the capacity for sustained human-to-human transmission, leading to surging community spread that is deemed a grave threat to public health.
The emotions expressed on social media reflect the trauma endured by many in China during the past three years when Beijing doggedly pursued an elimination strategy, even as the virus mutated into stealthy variants that rendered extreme mitigation measures like lockdowns ineffective.
Some fear that the Covid-19 measures could return as part of the annual effort to control influenza outbreaks.
“The lockdown has freaked out people,” said a netizen on Weibo. The plan “shows how unpopular sealing off cities is”. Bloomberg
