Covid-19 in China: It is business as usual albeit with adherence to protocol, say Indian students

Indian student Mirza Shafi in a supermarket (L) and a street (R).

India is gearing up to contain the potential outbreak of Omicron subvariant BF-7, as China, the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Brazil, and France have witnessed a surge in the coronavirus cases.

The health experts in India have advised to adhere to precautionary and pre-emptive measures to fight against the potential rise in cases, however, insisting not to panic.

After three years of following strict Covid-19 protocols, China is witnessing the biggest wave of the pandemic with a sudden surge in Covid-19 cases. Nearly 248 million people contracted the virus in the first 20 days of December this year, according to the recently released minutes from an internal meeting of China's National Health Commission.

Also read: Lack of info on China's Covid outbreak stirs global concerns

Mid-day spoke to Indian students studying in China who said that the new Covid-19 positive cases were mostly mild and that more than 90 per cent of cases recovered in home quarantine only.

According to the government, over 20,000 Indian students are currently enrolled in Chinese universities. A vast majority of them are studying medicine.

Mirza Shafi, a 25-year-old medical student studying in Guangzhou city, said, "… and most of them (positive cases) are asked to home quarantine."

The students also said that the country has not imposed stringent restrictions and people go about their routine following a "non-mandatory" Covid-19 protocol.

Ridhi Gupta, a final year medical student said, "We go to malls, supermarkets, grocery stores, and public places. There are no restrictions," she said, however, people are wearing masks to protect themselves from the virus, but, "it is not mandatory."

Earlier people with green code (who do not have infection or symptoms) were allowed to access public places, Mirza said, but for the past 10 days everything is back to normal.

The coronavirus pandemic, that first surfaced in the Wuhan city of China, affected various sectors including education. Just like Mirza and Gupta, over 20,000 Indian students studying in China had to return home. The universities arranged online lectures for the students for almost two years.

After protests in several Chinese cities following the Urumqi fire that charred 10 people to death, China loosened restrictions pertaining to the long-running zero-Covid policies that prohibited people from entering supermarkets and commercial buildings. People no longer need to show tests for most venues, and can travel more freely inside the country.

The sweeping changes indicate China is finally moving away from its zero-Covid policy and looking to ‘live with the virus' like the rest of the world.

The Indian students, meanwhile, after three years of pandemic, were allowed to go back to China and complete their studies and internships.

Gupta said that after returning to China she had to attend a few lectures online. Presently, "we have online and offline exams depending on the subjects. But besides wearing the mask, there are no restrictions for attending offline exams."

The students rued that the absence of directs flights to China from India, had weighed in on their expenses. Gupta said that a round trip to China would cost around Rs 50,000 but in the absence of direct flights she had to spend almost two lakh rupees."

Indian government should start direct flights for students to travel back to China to continue their studies, said, Shahroz Khan, a student's representative and a student of Nantong Medical University.

Meanwhile, early this week hospitals across India carried out mock drills to check the operational readiness of Covid-dedicated facilities with a specific focus on equipment, procedure and manpower. The drills took place after the central government issued an advisory a day before and asked states to step up their Covid-19 related actions.