China Covid outbreak: Beijing reports first deaths since easing of restrictions

Beijing on Friday reported the deaths of two former Chinese state media journalists due to Covid19 the first since most pandemic control measures were lifted on December 7 reported Singapore daily TodayYang Lianghua a former Peoples Daily reporter died on December 15 aged 74 while Zhou Zhichun a former China Youth Daily editor died on December 8 aged 77 according to financial magazine CaixinChinas national health authority has not reported any official Covid deaths since dismantling many of its domestic epidemic control policies on December 7 The last official deaths were reported on December 3 in Shandong and Sichuan provinces reported TodayChina had announced a nationwide loosening of Covidrelated restrictions allowing home quarantine for Covid close contacts and scrapping the Covid test rule in most public venues state media saidThe announcement brought relief to millions of people who had been reeling under crippling control measures since the start of the pandemicChinese President Xi Jinpings strict adherence to a Zero Covid policy had led to widespread civilian protests across the countryAntiXi slogans were raised during civilian demonstrations in Shanghai Wuhan Guangzhou Beijing and several other cities of China Antigovernment banners were raised despite a strict watch in a show of public defiance of the governments policiesIn the last week of November hundreds of people in Shanghai Chinas biggest city and financial centre began publicly protesting against the governments strict Covid control measuresAlso Read Maharashtra sees 32 Covid19 one death active tally now 165Demonstrators held up blank banners to evade arrest and minimize risk and chanted slogans such as Down with Communist Party and Down with Xi Jinping according to New Yorkbased Human Rights Watch HRWAccording to POREG the Xi regime had simply not bothered to take note of warning signals from Septemberend onwards if not much earlier Instead it went about with a display of iron fist that can happen when ears are not tuned to the ground the report addedThe Chinese government turned a blind eye to the criticism of its Covid management Voices Against Autocracy stated adding that despite all the global criticism China stuck to its impractical and unreasonable Zero Covid policy ignoring the sufferings of innocent civiliansOn November 24 a fire tore through a residential building in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regions capital Urumqi After the incident citizens circulated the videos on the internet with residents screaming and demanding authorities to open exitsResidents said they were closed under strict Covid19 restrictions that were in place for more than 100 days causing widespread hardshipThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever