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| "Change my mind" meme with a guy sitting at a table outside- the banner on his table says "Shanghai Disneyland Throws the scariest Halloween parties. Change my mind." Source: WeChat. |
Complete list is here: Index of Posts About the March 2022 Shanghai Covid Outbreak
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Hi all, here is an update about what's happening with covid in Shanghai.
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Stats
First of all, to give an overview of the situation, I think it's important that I tell you the actual numbers. Here in Shanghai, a city of 25 million, where we are all required to get covid-tested every few days, recently there have been around 0-10ish cases detected per day.
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| Graph showing local covid cases in Shanghai, up to November 4, 2022. Image source. |
(As I've said before, pay no attention to the difference between "confirmed cases" [which they are using to mean "symptomatic", for some unfathomable reason] and "asymptomatic infections." Because they define "asymptomatic" as "doesn't have symptoms of pneumonia." So it doesn't actually mean asymptomatic.)
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Shanghai Disneyland
So this was the big news this week:
Shanghai reports Disney-related COVID-19 case (October 31)
All Shanghai Disneyland visitors test negative for COVID-19 (November 1)
Shanghai Disney Closes With Thousands Inside Over COVID Fears (November 1)
Here's what happened: On October 31, a person tested positive for covid. Turns out this person had gone to Shanghai Disneyland on October 27. Therefore, on October 31, everyone in Disneyland was required to get tested (and couldn't leave the park until the results came out), and also everyone throughout Shanghai who had been to Disneyland any time from October 27 to 31 was told they needed to get tested. (They should get tested every day for 3 days, I think is the policy.)
Also, Disneyland closed because of this, and we don't know yet when it will reopen.
And I heard rumors on WeChat that "the Disney princesses are in central quarantine, in the shipping containers that have been converted to quarantine rooms." (ie, the actors who are employed as princesses at Disneyland.) I don't have any actual evidence that this is true. I am sure Disney is not going to confirm this, because they have to keep up the image of Disney magic and all that, and I am sure the government-controlled news media is not going to confirm this, because they have their own image of zero-covid magic they're keeping up... so yeah, not really possible to get actual evidence on whether it's true.
Anyway, on November 1, my son's school closed. And in the WeChat group for my son's class, the teacher asked all of us if anyone had gone to Disneyland October 27-31. Later that day, we found out that apparently a kid from my son's school had been to Disneyland, so now all the kids from that grade level have to stay home from school for 7 days.
So yeah, my husband and I have been taking turns working from home because Square Root couldn't go to school this week.
Note that this is not a quarantine. Square Root is not in quarantine. We are allowed to go wherever we want, just not his school. And he has not been marked as a "close contact" or anything like that. It's just the schools being much much more cautious than other venues in Shanghai.
(I saw some jokes on WeChat about "wow this is a dream come true for kids- they go to Disneyland, and then after that they get to stay home from school.")
This Disneyland thing affects A TON of people. Like, thousands of people go to Disneyland every day (people from all areas of Shanghai) and multiply that by 4 days- and also it was Halloween weekend, so it might have been more crowded than usual. On November 1, I heard from several of my colleagues who said that their kids' schools had been closed because of it. The amount of random chatter about "oh so-and-so is working from home because her apartment is in lockdown for 2 days" has been higher than average this week. This is affecting a lot of people.
But, as far as I know, everyone at Disneyland tested negative. (Except that one person who started this whole thing, obviously.) And I kind of feel like, if things get closed for a few days now, and then nothing really comes of it and we just move on with life, that's a much better scenario than if the covid-case numbers grow and then we get locked down for 2 months.
Also, when looking at western news articles about this, I'm looking at the headlines like "WTF?" For example, from Reuters: Shanghai Disney shuts over COVID, visitors unable to leave. SO MANY headlines that make a big deal about people being "unable to leave" or "trapped" inside Disneyland. Makes it sound much worse than it is. Everyone inside the park needed to get tested, and couldn't leave until their result came back negative. This is obviously a huge inconvenience, and must certainly have resulted in people being stuck there several hours longer than they wanted to be. But the western news headlines make it sound like a horrifying thing... One thing I will say, though, is the Reuters article also mentions the panicked rush to the park exits- "Videos circulating on China's Weibo platform on Monday showed people rushing to the park's gates, which were already locked." Now, that can actually be dangerous. And yes, I definitely believe people were running to the exits in a panic. We all have lockdown PTSD here.
Also, you may recall that this same thing happened last year: On October 31, 2021, Shanghai Disneyland had to close, and tested everyone inside the park, because someone who had been there on October 30 turned out to be covid-positive.
From a post I wrote in December 2021:
I know someone who works at Shanghai Disneyland, who was there on October 31, the night that every single person in Disneyland and Disneytown had to get covid-tested because it was discovered that a traveler who had been in Disneyland on October 30 tested positive for covid. (All tests came back negative.) I saw videos shared on WeChat, the pandemic staff covered head-to-toe in their white hazmat suits, sitting at tables administering covid tests to one person after another after another, and the Disney fireworks show in the background.
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3-year-old boy in Lanzhou dies
(This is in Lanzhou, a city in northwest China.)
3-Year-Old in China Dies After Covid Restrictions Delayed Care (November 4)
Wow, this is bad. This is really tragic. A boy died from carbon monoxide poisoning, after the boy's father was blocked from taking him to the hospital due to covid-related restrictions.
The boy’s father dialed the city’s emergency hotline four times in three minutes on Tuesday but did not get through until the last time, according to a report issued by local officials on Thursday night. On his fourth try, the dispatcher told him that because he lived in an area considered “high risk” for the virus, he could seek only online medical counseling.
The father then sought help from officials in his neighborhood, but several instead reprimanded him for not wearing a mask, the report said. Nearly two hours after he first dialed for help, he finally got his son to a hospital — less than a 10-minute drive from their home. The boy, Tuo Wenxuan, died soon after they arrived.
I read this, and ... yeah, a person with an actual medical emergency being told they can't get help because they're in a "high risk area" and that's just the way it is- that totally is happening in China now. Similar things happened during the Shanghai lockdown. It's not shocking to me that no one in a position of power was willing to help this child. That's really the way it is here now.
Yeah, people in China are mad about this.
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Miscellaneous
So I skipped one of our apartment complex's "mandatory" tests. We've had to do mandatory testing every few days since March, and this was the first time I have skipped. I just didn't feel like going, and I had been tested the day before anyway, so, whatever. I've still been getting tested every 2-ish days, but this particular time I didn't do it on the specific day that our apartment complex said we had to.
Eh, whatever. (Honestly, I sort of wonder what percentage of people don't pay attention to which specific day is the "mandatory" test, and just go by their own schedule and at least make sure they always have a valid test from within 72 hours. And also, I wonder how many people are just showing a screenshot of a green code to any security guard who asks, and not actually bothering to get tested at all...)
In other news, I saw 2 different ads for Halloween parties in Shanghai which said you CAN'T dress up like pandemic control personnel (ie, the big white hazmat suits). First of all, lol that's hilarious that some Halloween parties are specifically making that a rule, and second, I mean, yes, I can see why that costume is just TOO SCARY.
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Links:
SHINE
Free PCR testing extended through end of November (October 26)
Man apprehended for standing in for others to take PCR tests (October 26) "The 54-year-old man surnamed Xu who lives in suburban Jinshan District took PCR tests for 26 of his family members, friends and colleagues between August and September."
Registration for inhaled COVID-19 vaccinations begins (October 25) This is good news- China now has a covid booster shot which is inhaled! (No needles!) For now they are saying it's only for people who have not already had a booster shot. So far, China is not allowing people to get a second booster shot if they've already had one. (Ie, you can get the vaccine 3 times but not 4.)
The Wall Street Journal
China Agrees to Approve BioNTech's Covid-19 Vaccine for Foreigners, German Chancellor Says (November 4) This is good news. Right now the covid vaccines available in China use the inactivated virus- there isn't an mRNA vaccine being used in China yet. I would love to get an mRNA vaccine.
Al Jazeera
China locks down millions as COVID cases rise before winter (October 31)
South China Morning Post
Universal Beijing Resort complies with zero-Covid regime, closes for second time this year following rise in cases (October 26)
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