While COVID cases continue to decline in Hawaiʻi and across the United States, it’s a different story in several parts of Asia. And one of the hardest-hit areas continues to be China.
COVID cases in China are up to the levels they were in the early days of the pandemic.
The case numbers are still very low compared to what other countries have been through. But on Friday, new cases broke through more than a thousand in a day for the first time in two years.
A city of 9-million in China’s northeast was locked down.
In Shanghai, classes have now been suspended for preschools and kindergartens — while older students through high school seniors will be studying online rather than in a classroom.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, China’s government has maintained a “Zero COVID policy.”
That’s included tight quarantines, extensive tracing and testing, and other restrictions.
One change that started on Friday: antigen tests.
Those rapid tests had not been used in China before, although they are common throughout most of the world.
China’s National Health Commission is now making test kits available to clinics and households.
Fatal cases remain extremely rare in mainland China — but in Hong Kong, they have been increasing at a dramatic pace.
More than 3,200 people have died from COVID in Hong Kong in the current wave of the virus — which started early this year.
