Tell me why the world is weird: Shanghai Has 0 Covid Cases, Indoor Dining Reopens, Disneyland Reopens

Customers come through the gates of Shanghai Disneyland on June 30. Image source.

Posts about the covid outbreak in Shanghai, China:

Complete list is here: Index of Posts About the March 2022 Shanghai Covid Outbreak

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Hi readers! Here's another update about what's going on in Shanghai. We are getting "back to normal" more and more. ^_^

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0 covid cases

So let me give you the stats on the number of new covid cases in Shanghai every day.

These are "local" cases. I'm not including "imported" cases in this list- imported cases are from international travelers just arriving in China, and they are all immediately sent to quarantine (regardless of whether they tested positive or negative). So, if everyone does their job right, the imported cases don't spread. (Obviously, in early March, everyone did not do their job right...)

But anyway, here are the numbers for locally-transmitted covid cases in Shanghai:

June 24: 0
June 25: 0
June 26: 4
June 27: 0
June 28: 0
June 29: 0
June 30: 0

(And yes, I believe these numbers.)

So this is the situation now in Shanghai: Almost every day there are 0 cases, and then occasionally there is a small handful.

I feel like this is something that people outside of China don't realize. This is how zero-covid works: There's an outbreak, and then there are lockdowns, and perhaps a lot of ****ed up things happen during the lockdown- they don't care what you die of, as long as it's not covid- and then after everyone has suffered for a long time in lockdown, the number of covid cases really does get down to zero, and we slowly get back to our normal lives, where nobody has covid.

Zero-covid works. I am not happy with how everything went down in Shanghai during March-April-May, but their main goal was to get to zero covid, and they did reach that goal, and now we can enjoy the benefits of that. We also have trauma from being in lockdown for over 2 months, and some people had really bad things happen to them because of the lockdown... so it's not okay, how things happened. But yes, we are at zero covid again here in Shanghai.

I personally believe it's possible to have a lockdown without having all these bad things happen. You have to have good systems in place to ensure that people have access to food and medical care. You have to provide resources for essential workers, like delivery drivers, so they're not sleeping on the streets. Surely it's possible, but I don't know, maybe there are practical things that make it nearly impossible- such as the government structure, societal prejudices, human nature, etc.

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Still testing every Saturday

As I said last time, we are doing mandatory nucleic acid testing every Saturday morning.

Also, as I've explained before, it's still a requirement to have a negative nucleic acid result from the past 72 hours, if you're entering a public place. And we are still supposed to scan the "location code" whenever you enter a public place. Most of the time there's an employee at the door reminding everyone to scan the location code.

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And my son's daycare is still not open, so I am still working from home so I can stay with him.

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"Lockdown Survivor" T-shirt

Uh, so the WeChat account "I Love Shanghai" (which publishes news articles in English for the international people in Shanghai) is selling t-shirts that say "Lockdown Survivor Shanghai 2022" and "I still love Shanghai".

Uhhhhhhh.

This is in bad taste, right? The lockdown was ****ed up. An actual disaster. Maybe for most people, the worst thing that happened was we had to stay home and learn how to cook- but for some, it was way worse than that. And maybe for a lot of us, we lived through it, and now we're okay and we can kind of laugh about it after the fact, and buy a t-shirt, but... damn... we didn't experience the worst of it.

People died from covid. People died from suicide. People died because they couldn't get medical care for non-covid problems. People died from being overworked. We know of at least 1 dog that was killed after its owner tested positive, and there were also pets that died because they were left home alone for weeks when their owner tested positive and was taken to quarantine. And there were pets that ran away, and there was no way their owners could go out and look for them. Domestic violence victims were stuck in lockdown with abusers. People who tested positive for covid were sent to crappy quarantine centers which didn't have the resources to actually take care of them. Some people were stuck at home with no access to groceries- or they had groceries but no cooking equipment in their homes. Delivery workers had to sleep on the streets. Truck drivers from out-of-town had to sleep in their trucks because they couldn't leave Shanghai. Grocery store workers, medical workers, and employees in essential businesses had to sleep in their workplaces. People got stuck in the airport for weeks, with no stores or restaurants open. People walked miles and miles, dragging their luggage, to the train station to get out of Shanghai, because the majority of taxis and public transportation were not running.

OH AND ALSO, we found out our government is totally willing to censor people on social media telling the truth about how bad things are. Censor all day long.

And like... the vibe I get from the t-shirt is "I had to cook my own food, lol glad that's over!" Okay, I'm exaggerating a little- it really does take a toll on one's mental health to be forced to stay at home like that. We all really did suffer. But my point is, people who buy these t-shirts didn't suffer the worst of the lockdown.

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Indoor dining reopens June 29

Restaurants are allowed to have indoor dining again! Hooray! In the weeks before this, they were only allowed to do delivery, takeout, and outdoor dining.

Although, I heard some rumors about some restaurants trying to sneak around this. Apparently there were some places where, if you know the right people, you can knock on the door and say some magic words and they'll sneak you in. Like a speakeasy.

And also I saw a post shared on WeChat, from a restaurant that said something like "Customers are not allowed to eat in the restaurant, but employees are, so, we want to hire 100 waiters. You get hired, come in and eat, and then quit the job." Uhh... I don't know if it's real, because I just saw it shared on social media and don't know the whole story. Maybe it's just a joke.

BUT ANYWAY! Restaurants are allowed to have indoor dining now, according to this rule: "Dine-in services can be restored in the subdistricts and townships without medium-risk areas and community spread of COVID-19 infections during the previous week, according to a guideline released by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce."

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Disneyland reopened June 30

Shanghai Disneyland has reopened, but with limited capacity. Very exciting!

Here's a promotional video made by Disney, before the reopening. You can see a few shots of the rides running empty.

And here's a video from inside the park on June 30:

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Travel from Shanghai to other Chinese cities

During the Shanghai covid outbreak, other cities were not allowing travelers from Shanghai to come to their city. Or, you can go there, but you have to do a 14-day or 7-day quarantine (rules are slightly different for different cities).

Well, now we're hearing news about which cities are allowing people from Shanghai to enter without any quarantine. Hooray! A lot of people in Shanghai are talking about taking a vacation in Sanya- it's a city in southern China, right on the ocean, with really amazing beaches. Sanya recently announced that travelers from Shanghai are allowed to come, with no quarantine required. I see a lot of people on WeChat talking about planning trips to Sanya.

And another big thing: no more star on travel codes!!!

Okay this is a big deal, but if you don't live in China then you will have no idea what I'm talking about.

So, I gave an overview of the "travel code" and "health code" apps in this post. Basically, the "travel code" checks your travel history for the previous 14 days- if you have not traveled to any "medium risk" or "high risk" areas, then your travel code is green, and you will be allowed to enter public places, travel to other cities (well, with some hoops to jump through, obviously, but the green travel code at least opens the door for you to travel), etc.

(And if you've been to medium-risk or high-risk areas, your code will be yellow or red, respectively, and you will very much NOT be allowed to go out in public. My code has never been yellow or red. Most people's have never been yellow or red.)

But, actually, even if you have a green travel code, all might not be well, if you have a star. You see, on your travel code, it has a list of all the cities you've visited in the past 14 days. And if you were in a city that has had locally-transmitted covid cases in the past 14 days, the name of the city will have a little asterisk ("star") next to it. It means, your code is green because the places you went and the times you were there do not overlap with the covid cases in that city, so, really, you should be classified as "low-risk." But still, you *have* been in a city in the past 14 days which *has* had covid cases in the past 14 days.

That's what the star means.

So, typically each city has a set of guidelines like this, for people entering from other parts of China:

Green travel code, no star: Must have a negative nucleic acid test from the past 48 hours
Green travel code with star: Must have a negative nucleic acid test from the past 48 hours. 3 days of home quarantine.
Yellow travel code: 7 days centralized quarantine + 7 days home quarantine (but if your code is yellow, aren't you in lockdown somewhere already? I don't think you're traveling)
Red travel code: 14 days centralized quarantine (okay but honestly if your code is red, you would already be locked up in quarantine somewhere- like how would you even get to another city?)

I made these up as an example, so don't put too much stock in it- I am just trying to show you that generally the guidelines are along these lines. And each Chinese city has its own set of rules about the travel code.

Like, "green with star" is its own category, which comes with rules that may or may not make sense, and makes it harder for people to travel within China.

BUT! BIG NEWS! They're not doing the stars anymore.

Yes! "Green with star" is no longer a thing! We were all very excited when we heard the news and checked our travel codes, and they say "上海市" [City of Shanghai] instead of "上海市*". The policy has changed, and now there will not be stars displayed on the city names on a green health code, regardless of whether those cities had covid cases recently. As long as you personally didn't go to the specific areas in the city which were designated "medium risk" or "high risk", your travel code is green, the best color to be.

No More Dreaded Star On China’s Travel Code App (June 29) Article from "That's Shanghai"- not sure if their website loads if you are outside of China

An example of a travel code with an asterisk next to a city name. This person didn't go to the parts of the city which had covid cases (we know this because the travel code is green), but still, their travel code is marked with a star, which puts restrictions on being able to travel to other cities in China. But now the policy has changed and there will no longer be any stars like on travel codes. Image source.

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Reduced quarantine for international arrivals

And big news for immigrants (like me)!

Reuters: China slashes COVID quarantine time for international travellers (June 28)

Bloomberg: China Cuts Travel Quarantine in Biggest Covid Zero Shift Yet (June 28)

NY Times: China Halves Quarantine Time for International Arrivals, Cheering Markets (June 28)

(Lol I like how easy it was for me to find good articles about this from western media sources, compared to the other things I've blogged about during this covid outbreak. See this is something western media cares about.)

So, previously the policy was this: When you enter mainland China from another country, you have to do 14+7 days of quarantine. This means 14 days at a quarantine hotel, and an additional 7 days at home. And you have to do nucleic acid tests a bunch of times during the quarantine.

But now, they've changed it to: 7+3. 7 days in the quarantine hotel, plus 3 days of home quarantine. (With a bunch of nucleic acid tests too.)

This is huge!

You guys, this has got to be the biggest obstacle for entering China- the quarantine. (Okay, LOL, there are MANY MANY other obstacles for entering China right now- getting a visa, getting a flight, getting covid-tested before the flight- and there have also been news stories recently about how some of those aspects are becoming easier too.) I know people who entered China and had to stay at quarantine hotels for 14 days. It's not that great (you just hang out alone in your room, the wifi is slow because 300 other people are using it too, the food is not that good), but they knew what they were getting into, and they decided it was worth it because they want to live in China long-term / because they want to go see their family abroad and then come back to their life in China.

But WOW. Reducing it to 7+3. That's a huge change.

So, what does it MEAN?

Some people are saying it's a step toward ending the zero-covid policy. I'm not so sure. I have heard that omicron has a shorter incubation time than the original covid virus- I suspect that they collected some stats about the international travelers in quarantine, and found that keeping them for the whole 14+7 days wasn't actually any better than 7+3, in terms of being able to identify a covid-positive patient during the quarantine.

Honestly I don't think zero-covid is ending anytime soon. Recently I see little signs that China is being less strict about things, but ... I feel like it's more like "we think tourism/imports are important to the economy, and we think we can still maintain zero-covid while relaxing some of these rules" rather than "we're working our way towards an outlook where it's not really a big deal if covid-infected people enter the country."

But yeah, speaking of "little signs", this is interesting: Chronic diseases no barrier to vaccination for seniors (June 28) Published by SHINE- ie, this is simply the English version of something that the government posted. It says old people who have chronic illnesses should totally get the covid vaccine.

Which is TRUE, and I agree with it, but I'm pointing out that it's interesting because... In Chinese culture there is a lot of hesitancy about getting vaccines if you're not 100% healthy. People think vaccines have a tiny bit of risk, and therefore you shouldn't get a vaccine if you're dealing with other health issues at the same time. I would say this is completely backwards- people with chronic illnesses need vaccines EVEN MORE, because diseases like covid are EVEN MORE dangerous and deadly if you already have other underlying conditions.

During the lockdown, there was one time that doctors came to our apartment complex to give vaccines to people over 60. I read in our building group chat, one of our neighbors was saying that her mom (who lives with her) has heart problems, so she isn't going to get the vaccine "just in case."

And I felt like, ah geez, if people think like this, we're never going to get away from the zero-covid policy. The only way zero-covid can end without being a huge disaster is if there is a high enough vaccination rate, ESPECIALLY among elderly people. As I've said in previous blog posts, elderly people were not prioritized in China's initial vaccine rollout, because of this exact way of thinking. The idea that vaccines should be for young and healthy people, because the vaccine itself has a tiny bit of "risk." Ughhh.

Yes, there are certain medical conditions which can make it risky for you to get a vaccine. Like if you have an allergy to something in the vaccine. Specific medical conditions- not just a vague feeling about "oh I am not perfectly healthy, therefore I shouldn't get a vaccine." Agghhhh.

But anyway, look, the Chinese government is publishing an article to say that old people with chronic illnesses should get vaccinated for covid. Which, yes, they should! Is it a sign that we are taking steps to end zero-covid? I don't know.

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Links:

Sixth Tone

Memory Project: The Shanghai Lockdown. This is important. People submitted firsthand accounts of their experiences during the lockdown.

Southern China Sees Uptick in Flu Cases (June 27) "COVID-19 protocols have made it more difficult for patients to visit fever clinics or access relevant over-the-counter medicines."

The Tables Carrying the Weight of China’s COVID-19 Testing (June 23) I love this! A photographer in Xi'an took pictures of the tables used for covid-testing. It's literally just whatever table they found nearby when they set up their little covid-testing station.

Tell me why the world is weird

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Saturday, July 2, 2022

Shanghai Has 0 Covid Cases, Indoor Dining Reopens, Disneyland Reopens

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