New Coronavirus News from 27 Nov 2022

China reports nearly 40000 Corona cases in 1 day [Uttarakhand News Network, 27 Nov 2022]

As the world has started opening up is borders by learning to live with Corona, the opposite situation prevails in China. As the number of cases increase, panic and anxiety has started increasing among the people. A record high of 39,791 new infections of COVID-19 has been recorded in China on 26 November. China’s National Health Commission said on Sunday, of which 3,709 were symptomatic and 36,082 were asymptomatic.

A day before this, 35,183 new cases of Covid-19 were registered in China. Of which 3,474 were symptomatic and 31,709 were asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately.

China registered 39,506 new local cases, excluding cases of Covid infection from outside. Of which 3,648 were symptomatic and 35,858 were asymptomatic, which were 34,909 a day earlier.

A day before, there was a new death in China from Corona. Due to which the total number of people who died of corona in the country became 5,233. As of 26 November, mainland China had confirmed 307,802 symptomatic cases. China has implemented Zero Covid policy to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. According to this, strict lockdown is imposed in any city where the number of cases of Covid-19 infection increases. Due to this, the citizens are facing huge problems.

Corona cases are booming again!! [India Herald Group of Publishers P LIMITED, 27 Nov 2022]

China has introduced lockdown to the world. Now with that lock down, it is facing rebellion from the people. In China, people are screaming about the lockdown. Protesting the actions of the government, they took to the streets together and rebelled against the government. With this, the Chinese Communist government was shocked. Corona cases are booming again in China. Due to this, the Chinese government is again imposing a lockdown in many places.

Due to the increase in corona cases in the Jinjiang region, the government has imposed a lockdown and implemented strict restrictions for the past 100 days. Now the same Chinese government is sinking its horn. The people who are fed up with this lockdown are protesting against the government and coming to the streets. Ten people lost their lives in a fire in a residential apartment in Urumqi, the largest city in northwest China's Xinjiang region. This incident made people angry there.

People think that they lost their lives because of the imposition of the lockdown. Due to the lockdown, the relief measures were delayed and so many people lost their lives. Demanding immediate lifting of this lockdown, the people of the place came to the streets together with the lockdown restrictions and rebelled against the government. Thousands of people took to the streets demanding an immediate lifting of the lockdown. People lit large candles and prayed for the souls of the dead to rest in peace. Surprised by this unexpected incident, the Chinese government tried to disperse the people there with its forces. Police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd.

South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases in 50,000 range amid winter resurgence worries [INQUIRER.net, 27 Nov 2022]

SEOUL — South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases came in the 50,000 range on Saturday for the third day in a row, continuing the recent mild resurgence on the back of the winter virus wave.
The country reported 52,788 new COVID-19 infections, including 62 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 26,890,488, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Saturday’s figure is down from 53,698 posted the previous day but increased by more than 2,000 compared with a week earlier, indicating that the virus curve is on a modest uptrend with the onset of the winter season.

The KDCA reported 52 more deaths from the disease, bringing the total death toll to 30,330.
The number of critically ill patients came to 478, up 25 from Friday. The average number of critically ill patients stood at 460 in the week till Saturday.

Health authorities have been bracing for what has become the seventh wave of the novel virus in the country.

The COVID-19 infection reproduction index, an indicator showing the ability of the coronavirus or any other disease to spread, has stayed above 1 for the past five weeks, meaning cases are on the rise.

South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases came in the 50,000 range on Saturday for the third day in a row, continuing the recent mild resurgence on the back of the winter virus wave.

The country reported 52,788 new COVID-19 infections, including 62 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 26,890,488, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Saturday’s figure is down from 53,698 posted the previous day but increased by more than 2,000 compared with a week earlier, indicating that the virus curve is on a modest uptrend with the onset of the winter season.

The KDCA reported 52 more deaths from the disease, bringing the total death toll to 30,330.

The number of critically ill patients came to 478, up 25 from Friday. The average number of critically ill patients stood at 460 in the week till Saturday.

Health authorities have been bracing for what has become the seventh wave of the novel virus in the country.

The COVID-19 infection reproduction index, an indicator showing the ability of the coronavirus or any other disease to spread, has stayed above 1 for the past five weeks, meaning cases are on the rise.

S. Korea's new COVID-19 cases below 50,000; worries remain high on resurgence [The Korea Herald, 19 Nov 2022]

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases fell below 50,000 on Sunday, but health authorities remained on edge over a possible spike in transmissions in the winter season.

The country reported 47,028 new COVID-19 infections, including 70 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 26,937,516, according to data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

This marked the first time in six days that the daily cases have fallen below 50,000. The latest reading was down from the previous day's 52,788 but increased over 1,000 compared with a week earlier.

Daily cases tend to go down over weekends due to fewer coronavirus tests.

Health authorities are worrying that transmissions could be spiking in time for winter, bracing for the possibility of the daily infections spiking to as many as 200,000.

Concerns are growing, in particular, about senior citizens as they account for a large proportion of daily deaths from the coronavirus.

The KDCA reported 39 deaths from COVID-19, raising the total death toll to 30,369. Of the latest figure, 35 people, or nearly 90 percent, were aged 60 or older.

The number of critically ill patients came to 481, up three from the previous day, the data showed. (Yonhap)

Protests erupt across China in unprecedented challenge to Xi Jinping's zero-Covid policy [CNN, 27 Nov 2022]

BeijingCNN — Protests erupted across China on Saturday, including at universities and in Shanghai where hundreds chanted “Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party!” in an unprecedented show of defiance against the country’s stringent and increasingly costly zero-Covid policy.

A deadly fire at an apartment block in Urumqi, the capital of the far western region of Xinjiang, which killed 10 people and injured nine on Thursday has acted as a catalyst for searing public anger, as videos emerged that seemed to suggest lockdown measures delayed firefighters from reaching the victims.

On dozens of university campuses, students held gatherings or put up posters to grieve the dead from the Xinjiang fire and speak out against zero-Covid. In several cities, residents in locked-down neighborhoods tore down barriers and took to the streets, following mass anti-lockdown protests that swept Urumqi on Friday night.

Such widespread scenes of anger and defiance – some of which stretched well into Sunday –are exceptionally rare in China, where the ruling Communist Party ruthlessly cracks down on all expressions of dissent. But three years into the pandemic, many people have been pushed to the brink by the government’s incessant use of lockdowns, Covid tests and quarantines.

The ratcheting-up of restrictions in recent months, coupled with a series of heartbreaking deaths blamed on an over-zealous policing of the controls, has brought matters to a head.

Protests in Shanghai
The anger led to remarkable acts of defiance in the financial hub of Shanghai, where many of the city’s 25 million residents hold deep rancor against zero-Covid after being subjected to a two-month lockdown in the spring.

Late on Saturday night, hundreds of residents gathered for a candlelight vigil on Urumqi Road, which was named after the city, to mourn the victims of the Xinjiang fire, according to videos widely circulated – and promptly censored – on Chinese social media and a witness account.

Surrounding a makeshift memorial of candles, flowers and placards, the crowd held up blank sheets of white paper – in what is traditionally a symbolic protest against censorship – and chanted, “Need human rights, need freedom.”

In multiple videos seen by CNN, people could be heard shouting demands for China’s leader Xi Jinping and the Communist Party to “step down.” The crowd also chanted, “Don’t want Covid test, want freedom!” and “Don’t want dictatorship, want democracy!”

Some videos show people singing China’s national anthem and The Internationale, a standard of the socialist movement, while holding banners protesting the country’s exceptionally stringent pandemic measures.

Rows of police officers, who initially looked on from the outside, started to move in to push back and divide the crowd around 3 a.m., sparking tense face-offs with the protesters, according to a witness.

The witness told CNN they saw several people arrested and taken into a police vehicle next to the makeshift memorial after 4.30 a.m. They also saw several protesters being grabbed by the officers from the crowd and taken behind the police line. The protest gradually dispersed before dawn, the witness said.

China Covid: Shocking protests are huge challenge for China's leaders [BBC, 27 Nov 2022]

By Stephen McDonell

Acts of dissent are not unusual in China.

Over the years, sudden, local explosions of defiance have been triggered by a range of issues - from toxic pollution to illegal land grabs, or the mistreatment of a community member at the hands of the police.

But this time it's different.

There is one subject at the forefront of Chinese people's minds, and many are increasingly fed up with it - prompting widespread pushback against the government's zero-Covid restrictions.

This has come in the form of residents smashing down barriers designed to enforce social distancing, and now large street protests in cities and university campuses across the country.
In a way, it is hard to explain just how shocking it is to hear a crowd in Shanghai calling for China's leader Xi Jinping to resign.

It is extremely dangerous here to publicly criticise the Communist Party's general secretary. You risk being put in prison.

And yet there they were on the Shanghai street (Wulumuqi Lu) which carries the name of the Xinjiang city where a fire had killed 10 residents, and zero-Covid restrictions were blamed for hampering the rescue effort.

One protester calls out: "Xi Jinping!"

And hundreds reply: "Step down!"

Again and again: "Xi Jinping! Step down! Xi Jinping! Step down!"

The chant also went out: "Communist Party! Step down! Communist Party! Step down!"

For a political organisation with no greater priority than remaining in power, this is as big a challenge as they come.

The government appears to have drastically underestimated growing discontent towards the zero-Covid approach - a policy inextricably linked to Mr Xi, who recently pledged there would be no swerving from the policy.

What's more, there is no easy way out of the corner the Party appears to have painted itself into.

It has had three years to prepare for an eventual reopening, but instead of building more hospital ICU units and emphasising the need for vaccinations, it has poured enormous resources into mass testing, lockdown and isolation facilities designed to win a war against a virus which is never going away.