Beijing, Sept. 21 (BUS): International travel agency Beizhong in the eastern city of Tianjin has had only one customer since the coronavirus outbreak that began in July, prompting Chinese leaders to renew city lockdowns and travel controls.
Most of China is virus-free, but the severe response to the outbreak has left would-be tourists nervous about traveling to places they might be banned from leaving. This has affected consumer spending, hampering efforts to keep the economic recovery on track, the AP reports.
China’s “zero tolerance” strategy of trying to isolate every case and stop transmission has helped keep the country where the virus was first detected in late 2019 largely free of disease. But the public and companies are paying a heavy price.
Foreign athletes are due to compete in the Winter Olympics starting on February 4 in Beijing and the nearby city of Zhangjiakou, but the government has not yet determined whether restrictions preventing most foreigners from entering China will be relaxed to allow spectators to enter.
“Two years ago, this was our busiest season,” said Wang Hui, director of Beizhong Agency.
“Customers now tend to postpone their plans due to the outbreak,” Wang said. “This year is worse than last year.”
China is closed to most foreign visitors and does not encourage its public to travel.
About 2,900 athletes, along with another 800, are scheduled to compete in the Winter Paralympic Games on March 4 and 13.
China has reported 4,636 deaths – none since February – out of 95,577 cases since early 2020. The total is less than the new infection figures for a day in the United States, India and some other countries.
Since July, outbreaks blamed on travelers who brought the most contagious delta type into the country have occurred in Nanjing, west of Shanghai, Putian and Xiamen in the southeast, and Yunnan province in the southwest. But the number of cases is in the tens, not the tens of thousands of new daily infections seen in other countries.
“The zero-tolerance policy has been very effective in bringing COVID under control, but the cost in the short term is also very high,” economists Larry Ho and Shinyo Ji of Macquarie said in a report.
China was the only major economy that grew last year after the ruling party declared control of the virus in March and allowed factories, shops and offices to reopen. Production has shrunk in the United States, Europe and Japan.
Economic output rose 1.3% from the previous quarter in the three months to June, better than 0.6% in the January-March period, but it was among the weakest quarters in the past decade.
The International Monetary Fund and private sector forecasters have cut economic growth forecasts, but they still expect output to rise by as much as 8.5% this year, up sharply from last year’s multi-decade low of 2.3% and well above the ruling party’s goal of “more From 6%.
Exports in August were up 25.6% from a year earlier, but retail spending growth slowed to 2.5% from 8.5% in July.
“It is clear that people are concerned that they may be trapped in tourist destinations if Covid cases emerge,” ING economist Iris Pang said in a report.
Authorities on September 12 suspended most access to Putian, a city of 2.9 million people in Fujian Province, after the outbreak, the official Global Times, said, may have started with a resident who returned from Singapore. Cinemas, bars and other public facilities have been closed. Supermarkets and restaurants have been ordered to limit customer numbers.
The Xiamen coastal mall in Fujian of 3.5 million people has closed access to some neighborhoods after cases were discovered there. Schools are closed.
A businessman who sells shoes made in Putian online said the outbreak and disease control have shut down that local industry.
“Customers are urging us to deliver the goods, but the factories have stopped working,” said merchant Su Ye. She said September and October are usually busy, but disruptions in production and delivery “will lead to orders dropping a lot.”
“Many orders have been canceled due to our slow delivery,” Su said.
The Global Times said a man who returned from Singapore on August 4 was suspected of having transmitted the virus to Putian.
The traveler, identified by his surname Lane, had undergone a 14-day quarantine and nine nucleic acid and serological tests, all of which were negative, the Global Times said. But he tested positive on September 10.
Despite this, the screening and quarantine process is working properly, according to Yu Changping, a physician in the Department of Respiratory Medicine at the People’s Hospital of Wuhan University.
“There is no particular change in the situation,” Yu said. “There is no need to adopt measures different from the past.”
At the moment, access to tourists from abroad is closed. This has destroyed upscale hotels and resorts.
RAE