China battles rising COVID-19 cases after easing precautions

China is setting up new intensive care facilities in response to rising COVID-19 cases, AP reports.

Driving the news: Some Chinese cities, including Beijing, are facing outbreaks, which has forced some businesses to close due to infected workers, Reuters reports.

• “We can see that hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands of people are infected in several major cities,” Zhong Nanshan, a Chinese epidemiologist, told state media, per Reuters.
• Officials last week urged a “full mobilization” of hospitals and bolstered their staffing, AP reports from state media.
• Officials at the Cabinet meeting last week were also told to monitor the health of individuals 65 and older.

The big picture: The surge in cases comes after China began paring down its strict “zero COVID” policy last week following nationwide protests.

• Under the new guidelines, lockdown requirements were reduced and rules for isolating at state quarantine centers were rolled back, among other measures.
• Beijing last week also eliminated regular mandatory testing, so the official tally of cases is not clear.
• The largest protests since Tiananmen in 1989 erupted nationwide last month in response to pandemic policies.

Go deeper… China’s COVID storm