Monday, April 06, 2020

Crowds throng to Chinese tourist sites

It will be interesting to see whether China's move to relax its social distancing policies has any detrimental effects. As new cases slow to a trickle and the country had its first day with no new fatalities, you might think that China was justified in relaxing its draconian lockdown rules, but there are distinct worries that relaxing them now is the wrong thing to do (not to mention that many people are increasingly suspicious of China's case reporting of late).
You can understand why people are desperate for a bit of normality - central China has been in lockdown for MONTHS now - but some commentators, both within and outside of China, are worried that this may be too much too soon, and that it may lead to a second or third wave of the epidemic.
Certainly, looking at pictures from Huangshan Mountain park in Anhui province this last weekend, it looks pretty unpleasant as well as unsafe:


In Wuhan itself, similar scenes are taking place, for example in the main railway station:


Austria too is planning on relaxing its emergency measures. Yes, the country's case rate is falling slightly, and may (or may not) have peaked. But it still seems a bit premature.
We know that there is a real chance of subsequent waves of infection, so we really need to be more careful before allowing these kinds of scenes, especially given that, as we well know, what happens in China does not necessarily stay in China.

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