Beijing imposes mainland China's first Covid vaccine mandate in face of Omicron subvariant

People stand in line at a coronavirus testing site in Beijing on July 2.

 

Beijing on Wednesday announced a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for residents to enter public venues, becoming the first city in mainland China to do so as it attempts to contain a highly infectious Omicron subvariant.

From July 11, people will need to show proof of vaccination to enter a wide range of public places in the Chinese capital, including cinemas, libraries, museums, gyms, stadiums and training centers, a city health official told a news briefing Wednesday.

People who are "not suitable" for vaccination will be exempted from the requirement, the official added, without clarifying how they can provide proof for exemption.

It also remains unclear how people who received vaccination overseas can satisfy the requirement. China's health code systems -- which are used to show proof of vaccination -- do not currently recognize foreign vaccines, and those who were inoculated abroad have not been able to get their vaccinations registered.

Places that have limited capacity or where reservations are needed are required to prioritize entry to vaccinated customers.

Senior citizens visiting venues offering activities specifically for the elderly, such as recreational centers and game rooms, should be vaccinated as soon as possible, the official said.

The vaccine mandate comes as Beijing reported three cases of the BA.5.2 Omicron subvariant, which is highly transmissible and capable of escaping antibodies. An outbreak of the new subvariant has already shut down the northwestern city of Xi'an, where entertainment, sports and religious venues have been closed -- and restaurants limited to takeaway and delivery services -- until next Wednesday.

A medical worker takes a swab sample at a nucleic acid testing station in Beijing on July 6.

 

Lag in elderly vaccination rate

China remains an outlier for its continued zero-Covid approach, which has seen cities across the country -- including Beijing and Shanghai -- recently placed under full or partial lockdown. The strategy -- which relies on mass testing, quarantine and snap lockdowns to stamp out any resurgence of the virus -- has wrecked economic activity.

Chinese authorities have ramped up efforts to boost vaccination rates, especially among the elderly population, since Omicron caused successive outbreaks this year.

In Beijing, residents are already required to show proof of a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours to enter all public places.

The city has also required people who work in epidemic prevention and control, health care, public transport, delivery and other higher risks sectors to be fully vaccinated.

As of January, 98% of Beijing's over 20 million residents have been fully vaccinated, including 12 million people who have received a booster shot, according to a government statement.

But the vaccination rate among the elderly is lower. As of April, 80% of Beijing residents over 60 had been vaccinated, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Residents line up to get a throat swab at a testing site in Beijing, on July 4.

 

On Chinese social media, users were quick to point out that Beijing's vaccine mandate appeared to contradict national health authorities' guidance that vaccination should be voluntary.

"When did voluntary vaccination become mandatory?" a comment asked on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform.

Last September, the National Health Commission said it was wrong for local governments to impose restrictions on movement for unvaccinated people in order to speed up the inoculation campaign -- and that such policies should be corrected in a timely manner.

"Covid-19 vaccination should be based on the principles of informed consent, and (be) voluntary," Wu Liangyou, deputy head of the commission, told a news conference.

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Chinese censors scrub internet after senior party official gives speech on timeline of zero-Covid in Beijing

Health workers take swab samples to be tested for Covid-19 at a makeshift testing site along a street in Beijing on May 11, 2022.

 

Chinese censors scrambled to delete what appears to be a misleading quote by a senior Communist Party official published in state media Monday, which claimed the "zero-Covid" policy would remain in place in Beijing "for the next five years," in an effort to tame an online backlash.

Beijing Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper for the Chinese capital, earlier reported that the city's party chief, Cai Qi, said Monday that "for the next five years, Beijing will resolutely implement Covid-19 pandemic control measures and uphold the 'zero-Covid' policy to prevent imported cases from coming in and domestic cases from rebounding."

The reported reference by Cai, who is a close ally of Chinese President Xi Jinping, to "the next five years" sparked a huge backlash on Chinese social media. In response, Beijing Daily removed the line, describing it as an "editing error" while leaving his other remarks about pandemic controls intact.

CNN reviewed the entire speech and while the published quote from Beijing Daily was misleading, Cai did discuss at length the possibility of keeping zero-Covid policies in place in the capital over the next five-year period.

The pandemic controls that would stay in place include routine PCR tests, strict entry rules, regular health checks in residential neighborhoods and public venues, as well as rigorous monitoring and testing for people entering and leaving Beijing, state media quoted Cai as saying.

"I have to rethink whether I should continue to stay in Beijing in the long term," one user wrote on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform.

"For the next five years...what is the point of being alive even," another user said.

Weibo has since banned the hashtag "for the next five years" from its platform.

In early May, Xi doubled down on the zero-Covid policy in a meeting of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, the country's top decision-making body, ordering officials and all sectors of society to adhere to the "decisions and plans" of the leadership.

US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said in an online Brookings Institution event on June 16 that he expected China to keep its zero-Covid policy in place until "the beginning months of 2023," based on signals from the Chinese government.

For months, cities across China -- including Beijing and Shanghai -- have been placed under full or partial lockdown because of the strict zero-Covid policy, wreaking havoc on economic activity and hurting the job market. In May, the unemployment rate for people aged 16-24 hit a record high 18.4%.

China continues to shut down entire communities and cities over just a handful of Covid cases. All positive cases and close contacts are sent to government quarantine.

China reported 23 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases nationwide on Sunday, with Beijing and Shanghai each recording four cases, according to the country's National Health Commission.

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China's Eileen Gu wins gold in freeski halfpipe to make Olympic history

China's freeski sensation Eileen Gu won her second gold of the Beijing Winter Olympics on Friday, becoming the first freestyle skier to bag three medals at a single Games.

The 18-year-old superstar topped the podium in the halfpipe final at Zhangjiakou's Genting Snow Park, adding to her gold in the big air event last week and silver in slopestyle on Tuesday.

Gu, who says halfpipe is her strongest event, dominated from the start.

Again and again, she sped up the wall of the halfpipe and launched herself skyward, spinning and twisting gracefully to loud cheers from fans in the stands.

Already firmly in the lead, she outdid herself in the second run with an impressive score of 95.25. She was already assured of the gold by the time she set off on a third run victory lap.

Gu gave her coach a big hug at the top of the slope, came down the halfpipe once again and finished the ride with easy jumps, posing and celebrating her victory in midair.

"I've never taken a victory lap before in my entire life, so I felt like, 'You know what, last event at the Olympics it feels like I finally deserve it'. I'm really happy," Gu told reporters after her win, according to the Olympic site.

"It has been two straight weeks of the most intense highs and lows I've ever experienced in my life. It has changed my life forever," she said.

Reflecting on her first and history-making Olympic Games, Gu said her overriding emotion was a "deep-seated sense of gratitude and resolution."

"Just like this all coming together, years and years in the making and it's like letting out a deep breath. I feel exhausted. I mean, God, from opening ceremony until now I've been skiing every single day so I'm really tired, but I feel at peace. I feel grateful. I feel passionate, and I feel proud," she said.

China's Eileen Gu made Winter Olympics history on Friday by winning her third freeski medal.

 

Canada's Cassie Sharpe claimed silver with a best score of 90.75, with her teammate Rachael Karker taking bronze. An emotional Gu embraced both of them as they posed for photos after event.

She also wore a panda hat as she received her Bing Dwen Dwen replica mascot on the podium, causing a stir among her fans on Chinese social media.

A breakout star

The Beijing 2022 Olympics have been a breakthrough moment for Gu as she became one of the biggest stars of the Games.

Born and raised in California, Gu chose in 2019 to compete for China, where she is known as Gu Ailing. In the lead-up to the Games, her popularity skyrocketed, with her face splashed across billboards, commercials, magazine covers and on state television.

And since the Games got underway, she has become a national sensation, earning more than 5 million fans on social media site Weibo.

She was hailed as the "pride of China" after winning her first gold, and has since won more medals than anyone else for Team China at these Games. Following her final victory in the halfpipe, China now boasts eight gold medals -- the same as the United States (although China's total medal count lags behind the US.)

But Gu has played down the national rivalry in the sport.

"One thing I love so much about freeskiing is this camaraderie and this spirit of support in which it's not about what country you're skiing for, it's about our shared passion for the sport and this unique ability for this extreme sport to unite people because we're not here to break limits for a country, we're here to break the human limit," she said.

"It's not about nationality, it's about bringing people together. It's about sharing culture. It's about learning from each other and forging friendships."

Though Gu switched to compete for China, it's unclear whether she renounced her American citizenship -- usually a requirement for Chinese naturalization, since the country does not allow dual citizenship. She has repeatedly dodged questions about her citizenship while highlighting her dual identity, often saying: "When I'm in China, I'm Chinese. When I'm in the US, I'm American."

Reporters press Eileen Gu over her citizenship. See her response

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