The video that shows how the Chinese regime separates children with coronavirus from their parents in Shanghai

Ómicron put the Chinese “zero COVID” strategy in check with unprecedented infection figures in two years, but the authorities are not willing to change course or give up the strict script they have been implementing for two years.

One more chapter of that libretto was written in recent days, when the Chinese regime forced children who contracted the virus to be separated from their parents.

The leak of a video showing a minor on a street, walking towards an ambulance surrounded by toilets and totally wrapped in protective clothing, sparked indignation.

The barrage of criticism forced the local authorities to rectify that decision and that is why, since Wednesday, they allow parents to accompany minors in the process of recovery from the disease.

“This is what you need to do, manage in a humane way,” said several users of Weibo, the Chinese Twitter.

While the rest of the world has resigned itself to living with the virus, the Chinese authorities insist on their strategy despite the fact that the latest wave has so far resulted in two deaths and a high spike in cases, especially asymptomatic, with more than 20,000 daily infections of this type in recent days.

China fears that opening its hand will lead to an abrupt increase in the number of deaths as has happened in other neighboring countries - more than 300 deaths daily in South Korea this month - or facing a hypothetical health collapse.

Also of concern would be the lack of herd immunity - with 161,692 confirmed cases since the pandemic began, according to official statistics - or the lack of messenger RNA vaccines: this week, the pharmaceutical CanSino received authorization to start clinical trials on an unprecedented technology in the Asian country.

88% of the Chinese population, some 1.24 billion people, have already received the full schedule of COVID-19 vaccination, and there is concern that only about 80% of those over 60 years of age have been inoculated with at least two doses, but very few have three.

According to the National Health Commission, 65% of the serious cases of this wave are among those over 60, which led the authorities to “push” - in the words of official Lei Zhenglong - vaccination among this group.

Congress in sight

In the meantime, the measures are taking a toll on the population and tension reaches social networks, where videos are shared of residents' fights with toilets, lack of food during quarantines or the abuse and cruelty sacrifice of pets of isolated people, and where the effectiveness of the confinements given the high transmissibility of Ómicron.

Some experts had opted to make the measures more flexible, but the authorities only agreed to add the adjective “dynamic” to their “zero COVID” under the premise of “quickly” controlling transmission and that outbreaks would have the lowest possible cost.

“We must persevere to achieve the final victory,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping recently, who, according to the Xinhua agency, “personally leads” the Chinese response to the virus.

Xulio Ríos, director of the Observatory of Chinese Politics, told the news agency EFE that “a tightening of measures was predictable because the Communist Party (CCP) will not take any risks.”

“They are aware that at any moment the situation can get out of control and that takes their sleep away,” he said after mentioning the 20th Autumn Congress, in which Xi is expected to revalidate his position at the head of the CCP and the country for a third term.

According to some analysts, the focus will be on whether the next Politburo Standing Committee (the peak of power, composed of seven people) has only those closest to Xi or whether there are any successors in sight among those elected.

Also if Li Qiang, CCP secretary in Shanghai, revalidates his position in the Politburo at a time of maximum scrutiny over officials: since the pandemic began, the Chinese government has fired or reprimanded more than 1,000 for their “unfortunate” anti-covid management, according to data from the South China Morning Post.

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