China Once Again Sets A Record For Daily COVID-19 Infections When Protests On Restrictions Extended

JAKARTA - China recorded a fifth consecutive record day of daily COVID-19 infections, as protests against strict government-imposed restrictions swept the country.

China's Health Commission on Monday reported 40.347 new COVID-19 infections on November 27, of which 3.822 cases were symptomatic and 36,525 were asymptomatic.

The figure was up by 556 compared with 39.791 new cases a day earlier, of which 3.709 were symptomatic and 36.082 asymptomatic, which were counted separately by China.

Excluding imported infections, China reported 40.052 new local cases, of which 3.748 were symptomatic and 36.304 asymptomatic, up from 39.506 the previous day.

Despite this, no new deaths were reported compared to one day earlier, keeping fatalities at 5.233. As of November 27, mainland China has confirmed 311.624 cases with symptoms.

Infections spiked as hundreds of demonstrators and police clashed in Shanghai on Sunday night, as protests over China's strict COVID restrictions spread to several cities.

China's capital, Beijing, reported 840 symptomatic cases and 3.048 asymptomatic cases on Sunday, compared with 747 symptomatic cases and 3.560 asymptomatic cases the previous day, according to local government data.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai financial center reported 16 symptomatic cases and 128 asymptomatic cases, compared with 11 symptomatic cases and 119 asymptomatic cases a day earlier, local health authorities reported.

As for Guangzhou, the southern city of nearly 19 million people, reported 199 new symptomatic and 7.166 asymptomatic locally transmitted cases, compared with 146 symptomatic and 7.266 asymptomatic cases a day earlier, local authorities said.

Meanwhile Chongqing reported 238 new locally transmitted symptomatic COVID-19 infections and 9.447 asymptomatic cases, compared with 194 symptomatic cases and 8.667 asymptomatic cases the previous day, local government authorities said.

As previously reported, hundreds of protesters and police clashed in Shanghai late Sunday, as protests over China's strict COVID restrictions flared for a third day and spread to several cities after deadly fires in the far west of the country.

The wave of civil disobedience is unprecedented on the mainland since President Xi Jinping came to power a decade ago, as frustration mounts over his zero-COVID policy nearly three years after the pandemic. The COVID measures have also taken a heavy toll on the world's second-largest economy.

Protesters also took to the streets in the cities of Wuhan and Chengdu on Sunday, while students at university campuses across China gathered to demonstrate over the weekend.

In the early hours of Monday in Beijing, two groups of protesters numbering at least 1,000 gathered along the Chinese capital's 3rd Ring Road near the Liangma River, refusing to disperse.

"We don't want masks, we want freedom. We don't want COVID tests, we want freedom," one group shouted earlier.

On Sunday, large crowds gathered in the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu, according to videos on social media, where they also held up blank papers and chanted: "We don't want a ruler for life. We don't want an emperor," referring to President Xi, who has removed presidential term limits, citing Reuters.

A day earlier, a memorial event in Shanghai for the victims of an apartment fire turned into a protest against COVID restrictions, with the crowd chanting calls for the lockdown to be lifted.

“Down with the Chinese Communist Party, down with Xi Jinping”, a large group chanted early Sunday, according to witnesses and videos posted on social media, in a rare public protest against the country's leadership. Please note, the video cannot be independently verified.

Other cities that have seen public dissent include Lanzhou in the northwest, where residents on Saturday overturned COVID staff tents and destroyed testing booths, according to posts on social media. Protesters say they are locked up even though no one has tested positive.

Thursday's fire at a high-rise residential building in Urumqi City, capital of the Xinjiang region, sparked protests, after videos of the incident posted on social media led to accusations the lockdown was a factor in the blaze that killed 10 people.

Urumqi officials abruptly held a press conference in the early hours of Saturday morning, to deny COVID's actions had hampered escape and rescue efforts.

Many of Urumqi's four million residents have been under the country's longest lockdown, prohibited from leaving their homes for 100 days.