COVID-19 lessons from the other side of the border
By Wisley Lau
Credit: SCMP
Hong Kong’s fifth wave is a brutal hit. Cases have grown exponentially from just a couple of COVID-19 cases to tens of thousands of cases in nearly a month, and the total number of cases in Hong Kong has surpassed the total number of cases in mainland China in March. Not only that, the city has the highest COVID-19 death rate in the world. The Omicron and Delta COVID-19 tsunami is not only hitting Hong Kong hard, it is starting to crack the walls of China’s infamous zero-COVID policy. From late February onwards, Shenzhen applied China’s zero-COVID strategy, after a few weeks of lockdowns and mass testing, Shenzhen squashed the spread of Omicron in the city for now, however it required massive sacrifices of mobility from society to achieve that goal. Here is how the mainland government approached fighting COVID-19:
Closing the border:
Before the fifth wave, the restrictions for border crossers were already very strict. But now, to prevent as many COVID-19 infections as possible, it is mandatory for people to sign up on the Shenzhen customs’ website if you want to go through the Shenzhen Bay border checkpoint. The tricky thing is there are limited spots, in mid-February the number of spots was 800 per day, then it was adjusted to 500 per day in late-February to early-March. With tens of hundreds of thousands wanting to snatch a spot on the website, the chance of getting into the mainland is nearly impossible.
If you want to go to Zhuhai, chances are you cannot bring a lot of stuff because even if you have successfully booked a seat in the transport bus, there is an easily surpassable luggage weight limit of 35kg. Which leaves the riskiest option: travelling by plane to your destination, where your chances of getting COVID-19 are more severe than any other mode of border crossing. It isn’t just that either, you have to land in Beijing or Shanghai to do a COVID-19 test before you are transported to your hotel for a 14-day quarantine then another 7-day quarantine at home (if you don’t have a home to go to you stay in the hotel for the entire twenty one days).
Patrolling the border:
One of the reasons there is an increase in COVID-19 cases in Shenzhen is due to illegal border crossings by land and at sea. The authorities have done all they can to catch the illegal “immigrants” from unknowingly spreading the virus in communities. Not only have they added spotlights near Shenzhen waters to catch any suspicious boats from coming in, they have also added barbed wires around the land border to prevent easy entry for trespassers. To make it even more extreme, the government has sent police forces to enter every apartment and home to check if they are hiding anyone who has illegally crossed the border. Many individuals involved have been captured.
COVID-19 testing is key:
During the fourteen days of quarantine in a hotel, you are required to take a COVID-19 test six out of those fourteen days. Those tests include both a nasal swab and throat swab test. Although they can be painful, they become a part of a regular routine. In the author’s case during the 7-day home quarantine, everyone in the estate was required to take one COVID-19 test per day. The process was just going down to the platform floor of the estate, and lining up to get a simple throat swab test done. From leaving home to going back it only took an average of five minutes every time; this system is part of the local government’s initiative to make COVID-19 testing accessible and efficient. Results also come back quickly, only taking roughly twelve hours after testing. However, even though the testing process is incredibly fast, there are people who let their family members cut in line; while the acts are condemned by many, nobody seems to have the willingness to prevent it.
Manpower, manpower, manpower:
Unlike Hong Kong, Shenzhen has a lot of people available to carry out tasks. Many are members of the Chinese Communist Party and are summoned by their superiors to complete the job they are assigned, whether it is helping with the massive testing effort, or organizing community activities. When there is a demand and you are a member of the party, you will need to be up for the task. Though that does not only apply to party members, public school teachers, regardless of political affiliation, are also “encouraged” to join the volunteer force, which undermines the “volunteer” aspect and raises some eyebrows on whether the government’s claims of volunteering are fair.
Use of technology:
Walking around Shenzhen, technology is a constant. Typically, whenever China and COVID-19 prevention technology are associated, people may think of the rumored surveillance cameras spying on your every move. There is a kernel of truth in that but not in the way you think: QR code scanning has been the actual key player in COVID-19 prevention. When crossing the border, you need to display three different types of colored QR codes in order for the customs to let you into China. While living in Shenzhen you need to be equipped with two QR codes to survive: First, the health code, a colored code method with red, yellow, and green so authorities can check the status of your health. Red means you are in quarantine or need to be in lockdown; yellow means you need a COVID-19 test as soon as possible; green means you are healthy and haven’t been in contact with dangerous infection-spreading areas. This code is used to travel anywhere in Shenzhen. Second, there is the Yuehesuan code (粤核酸二維碼), if you need to take a COVID-19 test, this code is essential to identify who you are and what form of testing you need to take. In a way, these codes form a cycle, you need the Yuehesuan code to get a green signal in your health code, and if your health code is yellow or red you need the Yuehesuan code to get the health code back to green again. These two codes are now crucial if you want to live in Shenzhen.’
Lockdown, control, precaution:
There are walls and barricades everywhere. The reason for that is to prevent the spreading of COVID-19 in specific regions; authorities have classified all estates and houses into three sectors. The precaution zone (防範區) is a region with no cases and nobody has been in contact with someone who has the virus so they can enter and exit the area with a permit from the regional party affiliates. The control zone (管控區) includes areas where even though there are no cases in the estate somebody living in it is in close contact with somebody who has the virus. The estate is the only area you can move around in while COVID-19 testing is mandatory at this stage. The lockdown zone (封控區) has the strictest management of all because somebody living there has caught the virus; people are prohibited from leaving their homes while medical personnel will conduct COVID-19 tests right at your door to provide maximum safety from infection.
In fact, to make testing notifications even easier to find out about, drones are deployed with loud speakerphones to announce testing notifications to the public directly while occasionally also promoting prevention guidelines.
More precautions in daily life:
During this challenging time, everything you normally do is heavily impacted. If you want to go out, an issued permit is needed for you to move freely. If you want to buy groceries, instead of going to the stores you have to order them online, which may take a long time to arrive due to the massive demand. If you want to order anything from the internet, you need to be aware of which delivery service the shop is using because it might not deliver it to you at all. Living in Shenzhen is more convenient than Hong Kong, but nonetheless, these measures are hard to deal with.
Propaganda boom:
The propaganda campaign repeatedly motivates citizens into following the new rules and adapting to the new times. Every morning when you open the TV screen, there are advertisements promoting pandemic guidelines. Local networks are also pushing catchy new ways to remember the new rules, the most notable being the COVID-19 Prevention Three Character Classic (防疫三字經), an imitation of the original Three Character Classic which is a traditional poem of sorts with three Chinese characters per verse (and mandatory for primary school students to memorize).
The catchy poem features lines like “Preventing COVID-19, normalize it.” (防新冠 常態化) and “[The virus] spreads from objects to people, [you] must beware.” (物傳人 要提防). It focuses on warning citizens about dealing with foreign or domestic packages since they “will pass the virus to you” (Fact check: it is rare that COVID spreads through touching surfaces, but the fear of viruses spreading through objects like packages is real) while also reminding people to wear masks and sanitize their hands.
Not only that, have you met Captain Shenzhen? A scientist avatar of Shenzhen who is working tirelessly to fight the virus and beat Omicron. It is a part of the local government’s massive effort in boosting morale among its citizens. By using interesting characters, catchy poems, and motivational songs, the government pushes an information campaign to not only dispel any rumors or dissent targeted against the policy but to paint the strict measures in a positive light.
The author’s favorite bit of propaganda came in a poster: it promises, “Lock the virus, your freedom will be returned back later.” (封住病毒， “还”你自由) Proclaiming lockdowns are essential for citizens to regain freedom, and only after the lockdown period has ended will citizens be able to do whatever they want.
One collective goal:
All of what you have just read, the mass testing, the community organizing, the halting of normal life, the propaganda and protocols, their single aim is to stop the virus in its tracks.
Chinese government heads are strict when it comes to suppressing the virus, and the people in their ranks know the consequences of not handling the guidelines well. There have been harsh punishments for city officials if they have not handled the spread properly, like the recent dismissals of two mayors in northeastern China. Security guards, hotel management, and medical personnel don’t treat the consequences as a joke either, being over-demanding with citizens to show health codes and COVID-19 testing results even though the government guidelines don’t require it. Regardless of position and power, everyone working on the front lines of containing the pandemic knows they will be in trouble when a person carrying the virus has slipped under their noses, so they would rather be stricter than the government guidelines than risk losing their jobs.
Bureaucracy runs deep in the system, no one in the boat can abandon ship without thinking of the consequences that lie ahead for them.
Challenges ahead:
After more than a month of the author living in Shenzhen, things are gradually opening up as cases decrease to single digits, mainly due to the strict conditions introduced above. But since late March, Shanghai has seen an exponential growth of cases similar to Hong Kong even though strict zero-COVID measures are in place. Small protests have erupted across the city due to a lack of food and resources, showing citizens are getting more impatient with the zero-COVID approach.
How will China react with zero-COVID getting more difficult to maintain even with the harsh rules? Will they continue to be strict? Or will they change their approach? Only time will tell.