With the improvement in the number of cases of covid-19, China begins to relax its rules of social distance imposed to stop the advance of the coronavirus. Despite the success in containing the virus, Chinese public policies were heavily criticized by the Western press.
The city of Shanghai eased pandemic control measures last week after two months of a strict lockdown. The capital Beijing, on the other hand, began easing measures in several districts on May 29. The city government has mandated the reopening of shopping malls and parks outside the quarantine areas. Public transport has also resumed in some districts.
“These are sanitary measures that the country has the autonomy to take. And they are effective. Without a doubt. What actually happened is that these measures became necessary insofar as, let’s say, a convincing and perhaps guidance work was not carried out.” of these populations so that they adhere to vaccination”, says pulmonologist and Fiocruz researcher Margareth Dalcolmo.
One of the main concerns of Xi Jinping’s government has been the elderly. Vaccination in China is not mandatory and the age group over 80 is the one that has least adhered to vaccines against covid-19. Only 58.8% of this slice of the population took the first dose of the vaccine. Among the elderly aged 70 years, the percentage rises to 86.1%. Among those aged 60 years, 88.8% have already been immunized with at least one dose.
This low adherence is mainly explained by the fear regarding supposed side effects.
“Another problem here, in China, is that precisely in the last two years, we have not really suffered from the pandemic. So there was no incentive, right? An urgency for people, for the elderly to seek vaccine”, evaluates Marco Fernandes, resident from Shanghai and researcher at the Tricontinental Institute.
Editing: Arturo Hartmann
