Top searches on Wechat: Shanghai's milestone, COVID in Beijing, Farming challenge

That vigorous, colorful and clamorous Shanghai that we are familiar with is expected to come back in the near future.

After a two-month battle against the virus, Shanghai has reported that community transmission of COVID-19 infections has been cut off in all districts, a milestone that reminds me of April 8, 2020, when Wuhan relaxed outbound travel restrictions and ended its 76-day lockdown. Beijing appeared to be close to achieving that target as well.

Besides the COVID-related news, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said the government supports the listing of digital companies in the capital markets at home and abroad at a consultation session held by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee on Tuesday in Beijing. Ginger River believes that the meeting and the statement has piqued the interest of many investors.

Today's review of the trending searches on Wechat is primarily about Shanghai’s milestone battling Omicron, Beijing’s continued actions in COVID prevention and control, and local government response to a farmer’s request on irrigating his crops.

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Tuesday's top 10 trending searches on Wechat as of 7:00 p.m. (1100 GMT):

#1 Shanghai has cut off community transmission of COVID-19

上海16个区全部实现社会面清零

#2 Families with three children in Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, could buy one more apartment

杭州三孩家庭可多买一套房

Explainer: Since 2017, every family in Hangzhou has been limited to purchasing no more than two apartments. The new policy raises the limit by one, which could be interpreted as an attempt to boost fertility rates.

#3 Beijing reported 56 new local COVID-19 infections, 9 were found through mass screening in communities

北京新增56例感染者 社会面9例

#4 Government responded to farmers' complaints about difficulties of irrigation.

官方回应农民反映“土地浇地难”

#5 Putin says Russia has "no problems" with Finland, Sweden in NATO

普京:芬兰瑞典加入北约不构成威胁

#6 Super variant of Omicron was found in China's Guangzhou

奥密克戎超强变异株进入广东

#7 Online replays of Jay Chou's concerts coming soon

周杰伦演唱会将线上重映

#8 Several were arrested for reselling train tickets leaving Shanghai at inflated price

上海多人加价倒卖离沪火车票被抓

#9 Pro-Russian hackers declared "war" on ten states - cybernews

俄黑客向英美等十国政府网站宣战

#10 COVID-19 cases in Linshui, China's Sichuan Province leads back to transmission from returnees from Shanghai

四川邻水疫情源头指向沪返乡人员

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#1, #8 ,#10

Shanghai cuts off community transmission of COVID-19

Shanghai cuts off community transmission of COVID-19 after tough battle — Xinhua

Let's turn back the clock so that you could see what Shanghai experienced in the last two months.

In early March, Shanghai witnessed a new wave of infections caused by Omicron variants. By mid-April, the number of daily infections had leaped from single digits to over 27,000. More than 600,000 infections have been reported so far.

To contain the fast spread, the business hub adhered to the dynamic zero-COVID approach, classifying the whole city into closed-off management areas, restrictive control areas, and prevention areas.

More than 30,000 medics nationwide were mobilized to aid Shanghai in its fight against COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the city has been working hard to overcome bottlenecks in logistics and help e-commerce platforms increase their transport capacity. Local community workers and volunteers provided daily necessities for the residents and group buying organizers also did their bit.

Timely and resolute measures have gradually yielded great results. The city has built the capacity to collect and test a maximum of 8.5 million tubes of nucleic acid samples every day.

As the case numbers wane, the number of patients in Shanghai's makeshift hospitals at the city and district levels has dropped to about 50,000, only 20 percent of the peak total.

Swift and full implementation of containment policies is needed to effectively contain infections caused by the Omicron variants, according to Chinese epidemiologist Liang Wannian.

In the next step, Shanghai will gradually reopen its business, which is a process already on the way for some districts. That vigorous, colorful and clamorous Shanghai that we are familiar with is expected to come back in the near future.

Meanwhile, as Shanghai is reviving from lockdown, more people start to leave Shanghai by trains. From Day one of this round of COVID-19 epidemic, the railway system has never gone offline. But due to various factors, there were only 4 trains leaving Shanghai on the worst days. -- Xinmin Evening Post

But starting from May 16th, the railway department will increase the number of arriving and departing trains at Shanghai Hongqiao Station and other stations and will gradually resume their normal operation.

However, since the transport system could not recover overnight, it leaves room for opportunists, as shown in the 8th top search of today. Six suspects have been taken into custody for allegedly scalping train tickets according to Shanghai railway police. One suspect allegedly sold two tickets with a surcharge of 2,200 RMB (about 326.6 dollars), while the other one allegedly sold seven tickets with a surcharge of 3,500 RMB. -- Guancha.cn

The police have warned people not to buy tickets through unofficial channels to avoid fraud or leak of personal information. And the police would hold on to a "zero tolerance" policy toward ticket scalping.

As more and more people plan to go home from Shanghai, other cities may raise an eyebrow. Some have found local infections that traced back to Shanghai. On May 9th, southwest China's Sichuan Province reported three new cases of local asymptomatic infections. The numbers of infections surged to 527 by May 15th. And 496 of the total cases are spotted in Linshui county.

According to genetic testing, the variant causing infections in Sichuan province is the Omicron BA2.2 variant, which means the source is Shanghai. And further investigation confirms that the first patient of this round travelled back from Shanghai, and the taxi driver who drove him home tested positive soon after. This also reached today's Wechat trending.

So with the increase of departures from Shanghai, it is reasonable to infer that many places might keep a close eye on the returnees, which means they would implement stricter quarantine policies and more testings.

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#3 Beijing reported 56 new local COVID-19 infections, 9 were found through mass screening in communities

Beijing reports 56 new local COVID-19 infections -- Xinhua

Beijing reported 56 new locally transmitted cases today. Among them, nine were found through mass screening and the rest 47 infections were detected under closed-off management. In the city, 17 areas have been classified as high-risk areas for COVID-19 and 29 as medium-risk.

"At present, the prevention and control of the epidemic in Beijing is at a critical juncture, with sporadic cases and aggregated outbreaks intertwined, hidden sources of infection still exist in the community, and the spread of the epidemic has not been completely interrupted," Xu Hejian, a spokesperson for the Beijing municipal government. -- Yicai (Chinese)

The public traffic system has upgraded its verification process, so now passengers must scan a QR code before the ride. Starting from May 17th, passengers' health codes status will be checked if buses and subway lines and stations are on the outskirt of the lockdown zones and controlled zones.

A policeman holds a card at a bus station saying that show your QR health code before getting on the bus

As for campuses, universities will strengthen the control of entrance, and implement relatively closed-off management, called "no entering and no leaving." In this way, students are placed in a closed-loop "bubble", ensuring students' health and cluster infections would be prevented.

The CDC in Beijing has also issued guidelines for prevention and control, requiring shopping malls and supermarkets to clean and disinfect their supplies and facilities no less than three times a day. Besides, CDC advised shopping malls and supermarkets in medium risk and high risk areas to shorten business hours and control the number of customers. -- People's Daily (Chinese)

Fingers crossed that with all these well-rounded measures in place, Beijing would curb this round of pandemic fast and would not go down Shanghai's road.

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#4 Farmers complain about the difficulties of irrigation. Here's the government response

These days, a farmer in Cixian County, Handan City, north China's Hebei Province, left a message on the internet to the party secretary of his county, saying that his wheat fields are at a critical period of grain filling (which would affect production rate directly). He asked the official to give him a pass permit to irrigate his crops (the entire Cixian County was under closed-off management due to COVID from May 4th, and preventive nucleic acid testing was conducted).

The local government responded swiftly, and by the time the news hit the social media trending, the farmer said that the irrigation work in the lands he contracts has finished completely, thanks to the help of local government officials. And he was satisfied with the result. -- Guancha.cn (Chinese)

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has vowed to protect the flow of people and materials concerning spring farming. The ministry strictly prevents operations that 简单化 "oversimplifying the solutions" or done in a 一刀切 "one-size-fits-all manner" and 层层加码 "adding weights at each level". (see a GRR's published article about China's grassroots challenges in meeting different KPIs) Unauthorized interception and arbitrary roadblocks are strictly prohibited. At the same time, Local governments should organize farmers who need to return to their hometowns to carry out agricultural production, to ensure the normal order of operation of agricultural machinery and agricultural supplies. -- 21jingji.com

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