As they continue to loosen the restrictions that have been in place since the globe was alerted to a virus epidemic in Wuhan in 2019, China and the UK are gradually learning to live with Covid. Britain announced on Monday that it would discontinue releasing the COVID-19 R number, which gauges how quickly the disease is spreading across the populace. This is because vaccines and medications have rendered it obsolete.
In the past three years, coronavirus data bulletins have frequently included the R number, sometimes known as the “reproduction number”. A COVID-19 case increase is indicated by a R value greater than 1. For instance, a COVID-19 carrier with a R number of 2 will spread the virus to two additional people. The next publication of the EMRG’s so-called “consensus statement” on Covid-19, scheduled for January 6, 2023, “will be the last,” the organisation claimed after a recent thorough study. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) infection survey will still provide access to Covid incidence statistics for the UK.
Similar circumstances exist in China, where reports indicate that hospitals there are overflowing and old people are losing their lives as a result of the virus’s savage spread after limits were relaxed. Officials have ceased disclosing Covid data, therefore it is now unknown what the exact toll is in terms of daily case counts and fatalities.
The zero-Covid policy, which included lengthy quarantines, required testing, and strict lockdowns to limit the spread of the sickness, has since been abandoned by the President Xi Jinping-led administration, which is now reopening travel with the rest of the world.
With the aforementioned improvements, some of China’s most onerous travel restrictions will be finally lifted. Inbound visitors have long complained about the onerous nucleic acid test procedures and the protracted centralised quarantine programme. However, as evidenced by the readout of the Central Economic Work Conference, China is attempting to pivot to “living with COVID” and its top officials are beginning to place a greater focus on economic growth once again, thus it won’t be long until China fully reopens its border.
