Health workers dressed in protective clothing give nucleic acid tests to men at a mass testing site to prevent COVID-19 on March 14, 2022
(Picture: Getty Images)Given the war in Ukraine, it is easy to forget that we are still in a pandemic. But we shouldn’t.
Shenzhen — a Chinese city nicknamed “the world’s factory” — is entering a lockdown of at least a week after daily Covid-19 cases nationally doubled to almost 3400. All non-essential businesses are being shut as Beijing battles to control the worst wave of infections since early 2020.
Asian stock markets sank overnight — the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was down 5% — but European investors seem sanguine.
Paul Donovan at UBS says production disruption in the region will only add a delay “roughly the difference between free delivery with Amazon Prime and free delivery without Amazon Prime”.
Are we underestimating the risks? Beyond the knock-on effects from China’s shutdown, the outbreak raises the specter of another new wave in the West,
On the one hand, China’s “zero Covid” strategy is very different from the “living with” policy being pursued in the West. Beijing wants to stop Covid in its tracks, rather than rely on vaccines to de-fang it. An outbreak similar to the one seen in China wouldn’t provoke the same reaction here.
But we are by no means out of the woods. Covid-19 cases are going the wrong way in Britain. With booster immunity still strong for most, the Government’s policy of only giving fourth jabs to the most vulnerable is yet to be truly tested. That’s before we even consider the possibility of a new variant emerging.
Covid hasn’t gone away. China’s current predicament should serve as a reminder that businesses need their Covid outbreak plans up to date.
