COVID-19 Pandemic: Frequent lockdowns, restrictions hampering China's local businesses adversely

Despite implementing a zero-tolerance policy against the COVID19, there has been a recent surge in coronavirus cases in China, hampering its local businesses adversely.

International Forum for Right and Security (IFFRAS) reported that Chinese authorities are concerned over the prolonged effect of lockdowns and restrictions on the local economies of the province as well as the national economy.

In areas such as Rulii, a southwestern border city, four lockdowns in the past seven months have been imposed with little to no effect on the number of cases being reported.

According to its former Mayor, Dai Rongii, these prolonged lockdowns have sent Ruili into a deadlock having a deleterious impact on the local economy of Ruili.

The former mayor also requested the government to resume production and necessary business to balance the interest of the nation with the interest of the localities, reported IFFRAS.

The residents of border provinces like Heilongjiang, Hebeir, Yunnan provinces have done their best to tackle the problem. More than 97 per cent of the population of Ruili was vaccinated by July 2021.

However, the surging cases in the neighbouring countries as Myanmar appear to be the prime cause of these recent surges in China.

Since these cities are largely dependent on border trades, frequent lockdowns and restrictions may keep the physical health of their people in check but the financial health is deteriorating by the day, reported IFFRAS.

The Province of Heilongjiang in Northeast China has reported more than 68 symptomatic cases and around 22 asymptomatic cases, and Hebeir province which is adjacent to Beijing has reported more than 21 new cases on November 6.

Similar is the situation for the city of Ruili, a remote city in Yunnan province sharing its boundaries with Myanmar. The Yunnan province has reported more than 1500 cases this year, a large portion of these cases coming from Ruili, reported IFFRAS.

The nation has reported more than 800 cases over the span of 3 weeks in more than 20 provinces out of 31 provinces of Mainland China.

This is the biggest outbreak of COVID19 in terms of infected provinces after arguably, the earliest COVID outbreak of the world in Wuhan in 2019-2020, reported IFFRAS.

(ANI)