Sanya, a popular tourist destination in Hainan province with a population of 1.03 million, is locked down after Hainan province reported 1,140 cases in the past 10 days. Four other cities were also put under “static management”. The province commenced regular mass testing on August 7. The Covid variant has been identified as BA.5.1.3, the fist time this variant was detected in China. The origin of the virus is believed to be imports of contaminated seafood at the Yazhou fishing port. Sanya residents must be tested daily, scenic spots have been closed and public transport has been suspended. A makeshift hospital with more than 1,800 beds has been set up. A total of six quarantine sites with 719 rooms have started operating. Some tourists stranded in Sanya were sent to quarantine hotels for a free seven-day stay. Yiwu, the world's major small commodity production hub in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, also reported an outbreak.
Beijing reported two new infections on August 7 including one person who tested positive after returning from a business trip to Inner Mongolia. Beijing placed strict restrictions on the entry to the city for people who traveled to places where local infections have been reported, as imported cases are still considered the biggest risk to the city's current epidemic prevention efforts. Since August 1 Beijing reported four cases.
Hong Kong is easing Covid-19 entry rules for international arrivals from August 12, requiring them to remain in a hotel for three days before undergoing four days of “home medical surveillance” that will allow limited movement into areas where vaccine pass checks are not mandatory. The long-awaited cut from seven days of mandatory quarantine in a designated hotel was announced at the same time as the launch of a mainland China-style, two-color health code. A red code will be given to all infected patients, while incoming travelers will get a yellow code until they finish the “3+4” quarantine period.
Multiple cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, have started inter-regional recognition of Covid-19 test results as the Chinese central government urged regional authorities to improve the sharing of test data to enhance the convenience of the public to travel and reduce the impact of epidemic prevention on economic development. Shanghai added a function in its health code app that shows users' records of nucleic acid tests conducted in places across the Yangtze River Delta region, which covers Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, in addition to Shanghai, in the past 14 days. Beijing's health code app also added the nucleic acid test results of other provinces and cities. The changes will allow users' local health code system to show the latest test results, regardless of where the tests were conducted.
China’s Covid-19 vaccine makers are expected to step up efforts to pursue innovation-driven high-quality development, based on their fast growth in the past few years, according to industry experts and business leaders. So far, the country has approved seven home-grown Covid-19 vaccines for the domestic market. The total number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered on the Chinese mainland was around 3.41 billion as of July 14, data from the National Health Commission (NHC) showed, and China has also provided more than 2.2 billion doses to more than 120 countries, regions and international organizations. However, analysts said domestic vaccine producers are facing shrinking demand for Covid-19 vaccines, and must refocus on product quality while strengthening efforts to better meet disease prevention goals in both global and domestic markets. So far, three Chinese vaccines, manufactured by China National Biotec Group, Sinovac Biotech and CanSino Biologics, have won emergency use approval from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The number of outbound international passenger flights from China is likely to increase by more than 200% month-on-month in August, as China continues to relax travel restrictions. Flights to the U.S. in particular are predicted to soar four times. A total of 2,845 outbound international flights are scheduled to operate in August, up from 904 in July, information provider VariFlight said in a statement sent to the Global Times. South Korea, Japan, the U.S., Thailand and France will be the top five destinations. Flights from China to the U.S. will total 188 this month, up from 34 in July, with Shanghai Pudong, Beijing Daxing and Xiamen international airports to process the most flights.
The gradual recovery of international routes shows that as the Covid-9 outbreak is being curbed, demand in civil aviation sees a rapid rebound, which also brings more inbound flights from other countries. Finnair said it will operate a weekly service between Helsinki and Guangzhou, starting from September 6, while Lufthansa resumed its direct flight between Frankfurt and Beijing on a weekly basis. Air France said earlier that it would resume its weekly flight from Paris to Beijing from July 22. More charter flights will also be provided to foreign businesspeople to come to China to resume face-to-face business meetings.
In addition to charter flights, China is organizing more e-commerce and cross-border exhibitions and fairs to help boost trade, especially in Zhejiang province. Zhejiang's exports contributed 21.6% to China's foreign trade growth.
This overview is based on reports by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily, Global Times and South China Morning Post.
