Saturday, September 3, 2022

School Year Starts in Post-Lockdown Shanghai

Parents drop their kids off at school, on September 1 in Shanghai. Image source.

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

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So here's another update about covid in Shanghai. Nothing really big and new... just the same stuff... lockdowns here and there, slight changes in the red tape we have to live with every day... same stuff...

Oh also, the school year started on September 1. All students get covid-tested at school every single day.

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Stats about Shanghai

Here are the stats for locally-transmitted covid cases in Shanghai (ie, not counting "imported" cases, which means people who entered China from abroad, as I've explained in previous posts) for the past week:

August 26: 8 cases (1 symptomatic* +7 asymptomatic*)
August 27: 8 cases (0+8)
August 28: 0 cases (0+0)
August 29: 0 cases (0+0)
August 30: 2 cases (1+1)
August 31: 0 cases (0+0)
September 1: 1 case (1+0)
September 2: 3 cases (1+2)

*As I've mentioned before: In the stats for covid cases in Shanghai, "symptomatic" means "has pneumonia symptoms" and "asymptomatic" means "doesn't have pneumonia symptoms, but might have other symptoms". So don't take the "symptomatic" and "asymptomatic" labels too seriously.

I'm posting these stats here because I feel like it's very tough to convey to people in other countries how close to zero we are here. How there is really basically 0 chance of me getting covid as I go about my life. I was sick recently, and my family in the US was asking me "did you get tested for covid?" and like, yes I got tested, just because everyone in Shanghai gets tested every 2 days, not because anyone actually thought there was really a chance that I might have covid.

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Quarantining for 7+3 when entering China (is actually 10+0)

In my July 30 post, I mentioned that the policy about 7 days of hotel quarantine + 3 days of home quarantine when entering China actually seems to be, in practice, 10 days of hotel quarantine. I'm mentioning it here again because, yes, I recently saw a conversation in a group chat with a lot of international people who had entered China and done the quarantine recently, and yes, they are saying that in practice, it's 10 days in the hotel. The pandemic control people and/or the management of your apartment complex don't let you go home after 7 days; they are requiring you to do all 10 days in the hotel.

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Chengdu is in lockdown

China locks down 21 million in Chengdu in COVID-19 outbreak (September 1)

Chengdu, a city known for its pandas and spicy food. It seems that, at least right now, it's not as severely locked down as we were here in Shanghai- "Under the rules announced Thursday, just one member of each family who can show a negative virus test within the past 24 hours is allowed out per day to buy necessities." So, not like what happened in Shanghai- we were not allowed to leave our apartment complex at all.

But yeah, it still sucks. Not as bad as it was here, but still bad. (And it could get worse in Chengdu- we'll see.)

Seems like now every few weeks we're hearing about a huge Chinese city having a massive lockdown. (None of them sound as bad as the Shanghai lockdown, fortunately.)

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Links:

Sixth Tone

On Dialysis in China? Pray There Isn’t a Lockdown. (August 18) "'The mortality rate of COVID-19 is extremely low, but the chances of death for patients with kidney failure if they don’t receive dialysis treatment are almost 100%,' said Yu Xiang, the founder of the Xinkangle dialysis center in Xi’an."

Live Fish Take COVID-19 Tests in Xiamen (August 18)

SHINE

COVID protocols in place as schools reopen in Shanghai (September 1) A bunch of photos of kids getting dropped off at school.

Pandemic prevention top priority as local schools reopen for fall semester (August 31) "Also, from tomorrow, students and faculty will have to take nucleic acid tests on campus every school day."

PCR health declarations eased for people entering China (August 26) "People entering China no longer need to state their PCR test results, COVID-19 infection history or vaccination dates in health declaration in order to improve efficiency, China's General Administration of Customs said." Good news- a little bit less bureaucracy to deal with when you enter China. It is still very hard to enter China though.

China opens door to foreign students again (August 22) "Foreign students will be able to apply for visas to study in China again as the country starts to relax its visa rules for this group of applicants."

Shanghai's first mRNA vaccine approved for clinical trial (August 15)

Shanghai Entry-Exit Bureau

【Moving Forward】我的未来在上海(二)丨和美食一起 在这里等你 (video is in English) (August 30) The Shanghai Entry-Exit Bureau (where I go for immigration-related paperwork and all that fun stuff) produced a few videos about international people living in Shanghai after the lockdown. This one is about an Italian restaurant owner.

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