China delivered Covid-19 to the world, and the world watched live as the pandemic unfolded, and was ‘quelled’.
The lockdown in China was more diligent than most, enabled by a Government that can impose restrictions most would struggle to.
Chinese lockdown jigsaw lessons – Beijing
The Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control was reported on Sunday saying that wearing face masks was no longer necessary outdoors, as lockdown restrictions in China are further relaxed.
Beijing also reported no new infections for 30 days, and is now busy preparing for the annual session of the National People’s Congress.
As Beijing basks in reporting the good news. Other parts of China are imposing into new lockdown procedures to tackle new Covid-19 outbreaks.
Chinese lockdown jigsaw lessons – Jilin
Last week we reported that Jilin Province in Northeast China had declared a second lockdown.
China’s Global Times Reported the discovery of new Covid-19 infections in the city of Shulan that led to lockdown in local communities and villages on Saturday 9 May. Closure of all restaurants in Jilin was one of the first lockdown actions imposed.
Officials concerned about a virus resurgence have now quarantined circa 8,000 people and reintroduced lockdown measures in north-eastern China, even as other parts of the country like Beijing further relax restrictions.
Jilin is the second-largest city in Jilin Province and residents have now been locked down from leaving the city. Neighbouring province, Liaoning, on Saturday imposed new legislation stating that anyone who had travelled there from Jilin since April 22 would be quarantined in hospital for three weeks.
Chinese lockdown jigsaw lessons – Macau, Hong Kong and Guangdong
Across South East China, officials in Macau, Hong Kong and Guangdong Province are reviewing relaxing travel restrictions. The region is looking at allowing ‘some’ residents to travel within the region without cross border quarantine restrictions.
While some might look at interpreting communications from China as a jigsaw puzzle in itself, China is dealing with a large jigsaw and its diverse reassembly.
We in the UK can look back over the past few months and learn much. Documentaries like BBC Scotland’s Disclosure enable us to look at recent decisions and question them.
The UK can learn from China in how to put the pieces that make up the economy back together.
It is likely to be a gradual process and a delicate one.
The process here in the UK is already markedly different in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. And now regional R variations may make easing lockdown in the UK even more fragmented.
Following one reassembly, a fragmented one, may provide valuable lessons, in what to do, and what not to do. Then of course there’s the when factor.
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