Health News Roundup: Beijing swings from anger over zero-COVID to coping with infections; China's healthcare system put to the test as COVID curbs fade and more

Although the government on Wednesday loosened key parts of its strict "zero-COVID" policy that has kept the pandemic largely at bay for the past three years, many people appear wary of being too quick to shake off the shackles. Beijing swings from anger over zero-COVID to coping with infections Beijing's COVID-19 gloom deepened on Sunday with many shops and other businesses closed, and an expert warned of many thousands of new coronavirus cases as anger over China's previous COVID policies gave way to worry about coping with infection.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

'It's dead out here': China's slow exit from zero-COVID

Judging by Friday's quiet streets in China's capital Beijing and the reluctance of some businesses to drop COVID curbs, enduring anxieties about the coronavirus are likely to hamper a speedy return to health for the world's second-largest economy. Although the government on Wednesday loosened key parts of its strict "zero-COVID" policy that has kept the pandemic largely at bay for the past three years, many people appear wary of being too quick to shake off the shackles.

Beijing swings from anger over zero-COVID to coping with infections

Beijing's COVID-19 gloom deepened on Sunday with many shops and other businesses closed, and an expert warned of many thousands of new coronavirus cases as anger over China's previous COVID policies gave way to worry about coping with infection. China dropped most of its strict COVID curbs on Wednesday after unprecedented protests against them last month, but cities that were already battling with their most severe outbreaks, like Beijing, saw a sharp decrease in economic activity after rules such as regular testing were scrapped.

China's healthcare system put to the test as COVID curbs fade

When Li tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday in Baoding in northern China, he braced for a five-day quarantine at a makeshift local hospital as part of the country's strict pandemic controls. Instead, China the next day abruptly relaxed the policy that has made the world's most-populous country an outlier in a world largely learning to live with COVID.

China to allow German expats to use German COVID-19 vaccines

The Chinese foreign ministry said China and Germany had reached an agreement on providing "German vaccines" to German nationals in China, after the German Chancellor recently said that BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine would be used by German expatriates. Relevant arrangements will be discussed and determined by the two sides through diplomatic channels, Mao Ning, a spokeswoman at the Chinese foreign ministry told reporters on Friday at a regular press conference.

China tackles medical supply snags, price gouging amid COVID fears

China said on Saturday it would stop checking truck drivers and ship crew transporting goods domestically for COVID-19, removing a key bottleneck from its supply chain network as a dismantling of the country's zero-COVID policy gathers speed. The country this week made a dramatic pivot toward economic reopening, loosening key parts of the COVID policy in a shift that has been welcomed by a weary public but also is now stoking concerns that infections could spike and cause further disruptions.