Xi Jinping gets China in knots; prolonged Covid tsunami may douse dragon fire
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, December 21: Respiratory expert Wang Guangfa of Peking First Hospital has called for scaling up intensive care units in the Chinses medical facilities. He is of the view that the Covid wave will last for months. The statistical matrix, which has been used to predict the scale of the pandemic previously, is making scary projections, with some even estimating that there could be a million or more fatalities.
Germany, a close trading partner of China, is rattled. Olaf Scholz and Shebaz Sharif, German Chancellor and Pakistani Prime Minister respectively, were the only two leaders who had rushed to Beijing to fête Xi for taking a record third term as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, which would also give another tenure as President in March next year. German ambassador in Beijing Patricia Flor on Wednesday said that the citizens of Germany in China would begin getting mRNA (BionTech) vaccines. Sinovac vaccine of China has been found to have been ineffective and spurned by several nations in the past.
Introduction of the German vaccine by all accounts is the first clear sign that the vaccine nationalism of Xi has turned into a fiasco, leading to an unmitigated disaster for China. Local reports from China, cited by several publications, confirmed the contents of the videos doing the rounds on internet for several days that bodies are piling up at morgues and crematoriums are burning them 24X7, while there still remains a long waiting time. Fever medicines had already run out of stock a few days ago, and the hospitals are refusing patients for want of oxygen and beds.
The BF.7 strain, which is creating havoc in China, is known to be highly infectious, with patients being symptomatic, reporting high fever. China has once more kept the world in the dark about the extent of the pandemic, while in the past blocking all efforts of the international health bodies to trace the source of the Coronavirus. By keeping the world in the dark about the Covid-19 situations, China is being accused in several quarters of having already exported BF.7 strain to several countries, as cases are rising in Japan, South Korea, Brazil, the US and other countries.
“India must begin quarantining all who are coming from China, for Beijing is accused of infecting everyone while keeping own country under the lockdown,” said major General (Retired) Shashi Asthana.
India on Wednesday put in place the mechanism that there would be random checks at the international airports, and those found infected would be kept in isolation. But it may be too late, as had been the case in January 2020 when China was able to export the Coronavirus to the world.
The World Bank has cut down the GDP growth of China to 2.5 per cent from the earlier projection of 4.5 per cent. The Chinese administration is forcing the labourers to report to the works even if they are running high fever, reported several videos doing the rounds on the internet, showing desperation on the parts of Xi to avert decoupling of the global supply chains from China. But now it has emerged that not only the US-based companies are leaving China but even the Chinese industrialists and businessmen are keen to take the first flight out of the country.
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