China reports zero local symptomatic Covid-19 cases for first time in weeks

Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, August 24th, 2021 - 55 comments
Categories: australian politics, China, covid-19, Media - Tags:

You probably won’t see this in our local media, as our pundits today debate whether it is time to ditch our elimination strategy and Australia gives up on it. China is also well ahead on ensuring its vast population is vaccinated as well.

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports:

China has stuck to its zero-tolerance strategy against Covid-19, counting on mass vaccination, mass testing, stay-at-home orders and contact tracing to put a stop to transmission.

The country had administered 1.94 billion vaccine doses as of Sunday, according to the National Health Commission. More than 777 million people – about 55 per cent of the population – had been fully vaccinated as of August 12.

China’s official Global Times also provides some useful advice, speaking in the classic Chinese way of the “Four Earlies: early detection, early reporting, early quarantine, and early treatment of COVID-19 cases.”

Wang Guangfa, a respiratory expert at Peking University First Hospital, told the Global Times on Monday that China’s precise zero-tolerance epidemic strategy has guarded the country against epidemic flare-ups one more time, despite the highly-transmissible Delta variant and larger areas affected, further proving the effectiveness of China’s epidemic coping model which stresses “Four-Early” measures – early detection, early reporting, early quarantine, and early treatment of COVID-19 cases.

China is also the largest supplier of vaccines to the developing world. Their economy is not doing so bad either.

They are  long-term thinkers too.

55 comments on “China reports zero local symptomatic Covid-19 cases for first time in weeks ”

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  1. francesca 1
    24 August 2021 at 11:01 am

    Love to know a bit more about the early treatment, drug therapies, supplements, success rates etc.

    That could be a game changer.

  2. Anker 2
    24 August 2021 at 11:18 am
    • Early lockdowns are the best way. With the other early strategies of course
  3. Gypsy 3
    24 August 2021 at 11:19 am

    There is plenty of material suggesting the Chinese authorities have lied about many aspects of Covid. This is an authoritarian regime, and any data they release is hard to take seriously.

  4. Ad 4
    24 August 2021 at 11:31 am

    Each country, with each national pandemic response different, is ranked according to the success of their response here:

    https://www.endcoronavirus.org/countries

    • Drowsy M. Kram 4.1
      24 August 2021 at 12:13 pm

      Interesting link – thanks Ad. I wasn't a fan of Sweden's Covid-19 pandemic strategy, but they're now in the "Countries that are nearly there" group, whereas Denmark, Finland and Norway are all in the "Countries that need to take action" category.

      Interesting too that Peru, the country that has by far the highest official number of Covid-19 deaths per million (5,908 deaths per million, i.e. ~0.6% of the population), is currently in the "Countries that are nearly there" group.

      What group a country is in will change over time. It's up to NZers whether NZ moves from the "Countries beating Covid-19" group to join Australia in the "Countries that need to take action" category.

      Unite against COVID-19
      https://covid19.govt.nz/

    • francesca 4.2
      24 August 2021 at 12:15 pm

      How is it that China, with 35 new cases,is one of those countries that are almost there trailing behind NZ (winning)with 15 new cases, and where China has fewer overall cases than NZ?
      Worldometer numbers so not strictly accurate for today

      And where the population numbers are so vastly different.(China being the most populous country in the world)

      China has 3 deaths per million , whereas NZ has 5

      • Ad 4.2.1
        24 August 2021 at 12:20 pm

        Rather points to the foolishness of holding up China as any kind of useful comparator to New Zealand's situation, doesn't it.

        • francesca 4.2.1.1
          24 August 2021 at 12:40 pm

          I dunno , the four earlies look like a good strategy for anywhere, plus an efficient vaccine rollout.
          We do well to learn from others’ success.

          • Ad 4.2.1.1.1
            24 August 2021 at 12:45 pm

            Our strategy looks better, and with better results.

            • francesca 4.2.1.1.1.1
              24 August 2021 at 1:19 pm

              Yeah?

              We have a higher per capita rate of death

              • Ad …
                24 August 2021 at 1:39 pm

                A pretty meaningless comparison given New Zealand's population fits into that of China 260 times, with vast differences in background population morbidity.

                How many days has China been without Covid19 infection since January 2020, when compared to New Zealand? That's the obvious inference of the post.

                • francesca …
                  24 August 2021 at 2:24 pm

                  I'm more interested on how each hotspot in such a vast country responds to each outbreak

                  I'm interested in their strategies, and their results.

                  Given their population and their geography, I'm not surprised they have localised outbreaks and localised lockdowns

                  They've had amazing success in containing and dealing with those outbreaks

                  Being so huge population wise and geographically with 14 bordering countries is not an advantage when dealing with covid

                  All credit to them

                  • Ad …
                    24 August 2021 at 3:22 pm

                    Except for China not containing and dealing with the outbreak that caused the entire global pandemic in the first place.

                    • Brigid …
                      24 August 2021 at 8:09 pm

                      Let us refer back to the original argument and see what the Lancet says

                      "In a press conference in September, Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, offered “deepest congratulations…to the front-line health workers in China and the population who worked together tirelessly to bring the disease to this very low level”."

                      As far as containing and dealing with the outbreak,

                      "“The speed of China's response was the crucial factor”, explains Gregory Poland, director of the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota, USA). “They moved very quickly to stop transmission. Other countries, even though they had much longer to prepare for the arrival of the virus, delayed their response and that meant they lost control”. "

                      https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30800-8/fulltext

    • McFlock 4.3
      24 August 2021 at 2:22 pm

      At almost a thousand new cases a day for Sweden being "almost there", that site is a study in why charts need labelled axes.

  5. Byd0nz 5
    24 August 2021 at 11:42 am

    I know people are sceptical about China with their anti bias, but China can beat it by paying the peoples expenses in lockdown and providing them with food just as a good Communist Country can do , definately not like fend for yourself Capitalists. Nothing wrong with benign authoritarianism. Suck it up.

    • Ad 5.1
      24 August 2021 at 12:18 pm

      Ahh the foolish left who just beg for 'benign authoritarianism'.

      Which rights under New Zealand’s Bill of Rights would you surrender to be more like China, and please be specific? Just cross off those ones you don't like which are specified in our Bill of Rights:

      • The right not to be deprived of life
      • The right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, degrading or disproportionately severe punishment
      • The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent
      • The right to refuse any medical treatment
      • Democratic and civil rights including the right to vote, right to be elected
      • Freedom of thought, conscience and religion and adopt opinions without interference. That also goes for religious belief.
      • The right of peaceful assembly. The right of association. The right to freedom of movement and residence in New Zealand. The right to leave New Zealand.
      • The right against unreasonable search and seizure, the ability to instruct a lawyer, and the right to have the validity of your arrest tested without delay.
      • When deprived of liberty, the right to be treated with humanity and respect for inherent human dignity.
      • Whole bunches of rights that ensure a fair trial.
      • A whole independent state funded entity who will stand up to defend your human rights.
      • Byd0nz 5.1.1
        24 August 2021 at 12:25 pm

        Where's the right not to be exploited by corrupt capitalists including the right not to be used by 5 eyes and American bullyism

        • Ad 5.1.1.1
          24 August 2021 at 12:49 pm

          Almost none of the human rights we enjoy are available in China.

          Now, I know you're up for the mental challenge you've been set.

          Get your red marker pen out and cross the ones you want out.

          • Byd0nz 5.1.1.1.1
            24 August 2021 at 1:39 pm

            You just stick to your anti Communist stance. I will always support Marxist/ leninist Communism. China may have wandered away from that for now but eventually may return, but even China today is way ahead of any Capitalist multi party/ one system state of exploitation, like I said, suck it up, case closed.

            • Ad 5.1.1.1.1.1
              24 August 2021 at 1:40 pm

              If you are living in New Zealand and are not prepared to show which human rights you would sacrifice to sustain your ideology, then you are simply a coward.

              • Byd0nz …
                24 August 2021 at 2:07 pm

                No need Marxist/Leninist has all those and more. You call me coward, I call you Dickhead. Who will get moderated?

                • Ad …
                  24 August 2021 at 3:17 pm

                  Let's see.

                  45 million dead from Chinese Communist Party resource direction. All painfully documented over many years.

                  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/sep/05/maos-great-famine-dikotter-review

                  要完成计划，就要大减项目。1078个项目中还应该坚决地再削减，削减500个。平均使用力量是破坏大跃进的办法。大家吃不饱，大家死，不如死一半，另一半人吃饱。

                  To complete the plan, we need to drastically cut projects. The (existing) 1,078 projects should be further, determinedly cut, by another 500. Using our power (resources) averagely is a way to sabotage the Great Leap Forward. “When there is not enough to eat, people starve to death. It is better to let half the people die so that others can eat their fill.”

                • weka …
                  24 August 2021 at 4:18 pm

                  You call me coward, I call you Dickhead. Who will get moderated?

                  You will. Ad's an author, different rules apply. Whereas a commenter calling an author a dickhead will get moderation attention because it looks like flaming and that leads to us having to waste our time sorting it out. If you think Ad's argument is that of a dickhead explain how it is.

            • Gabby 5.1.1.1.1.2
              24 August 2021 at 2:19 pm

              Always?

              Ok..

          • Chris 5.1.1.1.2
            25 August 2021 at 12:16 am

            As soon as NZBORA was passed the Crown set out to obliterate its application by vigourously defending breaches in the courts. Geoffrey Palmer's White Paper recommended an entrenched BOR and system of supreme law, but we ended up with a half-arsed piece of standard legislation that allowed the government to take regular swings at through strong advocacy from the biggest and most resourced law firm in the country, not to mention NZ being so small that all those fuckers from crown law, the judiciary and the politicians would hang together at the Wellington Club deciding cases the night before. NZBORA was held out as our great protector against the excesses of the State. The reality is that governments would see it as the rogues' charter and so take every opportunity to cut it to pieces. As soon as Lord Cooke of Thorndon left the scene it became the wild west. People think NZ's this wonderful example of a country embracing concepts of democratic freedoms and protections. Sure, the Act's still there, but governments, with the help of the judiciary, have dealt to it so badly it's barely recognisable today.

      • Brigid 5.1.2
        24 August 2021 at 12:48 pm

        As for being specific, could you quote (with credible links) which of these rights Chinese are denied?

  6. dv 6
    24 August 2021 at 11:46 am

    Apparently 34 cases yesterday Stunning.

  7. Jenny how to get there 7
    24 August 2021 at 1:18 pm

    From the earliest days when Mandarin speakers with an ear to Chinese social media, heeded the warnings of Mainland whistle blowers like Dr Li Wenliang, at a time when China was still trying to ignore and suppress all news of the outbreak.
    If there is one country that takes the virus seriously, (other than China)*, it is Taiwan.

    Taiwan's President kicks off rollout of island's first domestically produced Covid-19 vaccine

    CNN Digital Expansion 2017. Ben Westcott

    CNN Expansion 05/11/21 Eric Cheung

    By Ben Westcott and Eric Cheung – CNN, August 23, 2021

    ……Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen received her first shot of the island's homegrown Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, a public show of support for the new drug which is central to plans for inoculation self sufficiency amid low immunization rates and struggles to obtain vaccines from overseas.

    Monday's island-wide rollout of the Medigen Covid-19 vaccine, developed by Taipei-based Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corporation, comes after the drug was approved for emergency use last month by Taiwanese authorities for anyone above 20 years old, with at least 28 days between the two doses.

    The vaccine has yet to complete phase 3 clinical trials and no efficacy data is available……

    https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/23/asia/tsai-ing-wen-covid-vaccine-taiwan-intl-hnk/index.html?

    *(which only began acting after whistle blowers like, Li Wenliang exposed and embarrassed the communist authorities, paying the ulttimate price, for his courageous stand.)

  8. barry 8
    24 August 2021 at 3:04 pm

    Yes, you can follow the daily numbers published on the Chinese NHC site

    http://www.nhc.gov.cn/xcs/yqfkdt/gzbd_index.shtml

    Remember, they only report symptomatic cases (so not directly comparable to our numbers). There was a new case yesterday in Henan 本土病例1例（在河南）after no local cases nationwide the previous day. They still have some time to go, before they can consider themselves out of the woods.

    It has been a huge effort, involving lockdowns and mass testing. It was the worst outbreak since early last year and spread to many cities.

    From that, and also from the effort expended in Taiwan we know that squashing this outbreak is possible but it won't be easy.

    New Zealand can't follow exactly China's model (or Taiwan's). There is good reason to expect that our level 4 settings along with our beefed up testing and tracing capability will work well, and we should see the numbers peak this week.

  9. pat 9
    25 August 2021 at 6:30 pm

    "And just as the Ningbo container terminal re-opens fully after a pandemic shutdown, Shanghai's main airport is closing for the same pandemic-exposure reasons. This too will roil cargo freight to and from China, although there are plenty of alternatives. And there seems to be no end in sight for the cost of shipping."

    https://www.interest.co.nz/news/111913/world-trade-record-levels-us-factory-prices-inflate-higher-commodity-prices-turn-back

    Pays not to get ahead of yourself….the situation is fluid