Posted on 02/11/2020 3:12:13 PM PST by datura
Amid worries about the economic impact of halted business activities and lockdown measures following the new coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Chinese authorities ordered all public transportation, except in the virus ground zero of Hubei Province, to reopen.
It also asked all essential businesses, except in areas with a severe outbreak, to reopen on Feb. 11. Analysts expressed concerns that more people interacting in public and at their workplaces—especially with the virus capable of being spread during the incubation period— could spread the virus further.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has said the government would prevent large-scale layoffs caused by the virus outbreak.
Chinese businesses resumed operations on Monday after an extended Lunar New Year break, private companies in regions under strict quarantine measures remained closed.
China’s State Council, a cabinet-like agency, announced at a Tuesday press conference new guidance on which businesses should return to work.
Cong Liang, secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), an agency that issues macroeconomic policies, said that “all businesses related to the national economy and people’s livelihood should return to work immediately. Major projects need to resume as soon as possible.”
He added that other businesses that are “not ready” can be temporarily suspended. Workers in areas with a severe outbreak or those in non-essential positions can postpone their return to work.
When a reporter asked what businesses should do if an employee becomes infected with the COVID-19, He Qinghua, first-class inspector of the disease control bureau in China’s National Health Commission, responded thusly: “If the patient is found at an early stage, we don’t need to shut down the business. We only need to observe the related close contacts.”
He added that if the virus spreads within the company, then the firm should “take some measures,” without elaborating.
In the city of Beijing, authorities also loosened up quarantine measures, amending the rule from allowing limited vehicle traffic on the road, to allowing all private vehicles on weekdays and limited vehicles weekends.
Meanwhile, Xu Yahua, an official in the country’s transport ministry—in charge of railway, road, air, and water transportation—ordered roads nationwide to reopen in order to support businesses that are resuming operations.
He said local authorities would not be allowed to close entrances and exits of highways without permission, block provincial main roads or roads in rural areas, nor set up checkpoints at highways or provincial roads.
Xu said all Chinese provinces except Hubei should restore public transportation, including inter-province buses, inter-city buses, and urban subways and buses.
He added that truck drivers who deliver goods to Hubei do not need to be quarantined at home for 14 days if their body temperature is healthy and the driver has not visited the capital of Wuhan, where the virus first broke out.
But the risk of contagion remains. A 28-year-old worker from Dongya Textile Factory in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province started to exhibit symptoms on Feb. 7 and was sent to the hospital. More than 200 workers at the factory were placed under quarantine afterward.
Lockdown is isolating the virus, and returning to work creates the opportunity for co-workers to be in close proximity with each other,” and thus increase the risk of the virus spreading, said Tang Jingyuan, a U.S- based China affairs commentator, who is also a medical doctor.
At the same time, “the Chinese government is in a dilemma. The Chinese economy will collapse if businesses don’t go back to work now,” he said.
For example, Beijing Benz—a joint-venture between Chinese automaker BAIC Motor and German firm Daimler AG—sent a letter to the government of Tianjin city, where its factories are based, on Feb. 6.
In the letter, Beijing Benz said it loses roughly 400 million yuan ($57.42 million) every day due to the halted production.
Restaurants, shops, delivery companies, and nearly all Chinese service businesses were shut down after the outbreak. If the manufacturing cannot operate, the Chinese economy will come to a standstill,” Tang said.
According to Chinese official data, the service sector contributed 53.3 percent of the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in 2018, while manufacturing contributed 39.7 percent.
Tang believes Chinese authorities are risking the virus’s spread in order to restore economic activity. “It is betting Chinese people’s lives over the economy,” he said.
Reuter’s contributed to this report.
The idiocy of the CCP is breathtaking!!!!
Do the commies have free Medicare for All?
Can you depopulation control?
What could go wrong? Sounds like the pendulum swung 180 degrees in the opposite direction. Hail Mary if you ask me.
My God, their “medical system” is beyond description.
Do you want medicine that has not expired? You need to pay big money.
Hospital stay? 20,000 RMB daily for this virus, and only those who can pay for test kits get them. (That’s why the numbers are so low.)
This ought to work out well...
The Wuhanic Plague kills off the people that are a “burden to society” So it’s a win for he CCP. It will allow them to perpetuate their tyranny for a longer time.
The products they are sending here are also contaminated.
It just shows how little room China has in its ability to tolerate economic disruption.
In reality they now realize that the virus can not be contained and will spread in China to all areas.
Thus they are making a logical decision. “Go to work and keep the economy going because we can not stop this.” Cremate the dead. China could lose 2% of its population. We are talking about close to 30 million dead. I hope I am wrong.
Some conflicting messages here. Some areas are taking extreme measures too late, while others that are only a month behind them in the spread are dialing precautions back.
their ‘free medicare’ is worthless compare to taiwan’s
well, the public cremation is free in Wuhan...
A lot of Party members, who own many business and, the PLA who owns all the rest, are losing lots of money - what’s a few peasants here and there?
Cremation is never free in China. They still send your family a bill.
When a family member is cremated there, you wait in a large hall with a “now serving” number on the wall.
When your loved one is out of the oven, you go to the window to retrieve their ashes.
I am serious - no joke at all - when my ex MIL passed I was horrified at the process.
ELE
“All is well! Don’t Panic. All is well!”
They aren’t going to be able to hide people keeling over in the streets.
And now the people know, there will be panic.
It could go that way. Maybe they think they’ve got a handle on it. But God help us all if they don’t.
I’m sitting here at home in Washington State, watching CCTV Hainan on TV, and they are glorifying the workers. Typical communist bullshit.
The same workers they are sacrificing for money.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are openly considering a communist to be their presidential candidate.
Where the f-ck am I and what the f-ck happened to this world???
All I can say is we better not resume flights back in from there.
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