Covid China, rewards for tips: war on the virus, the latest strategy

Huge reward in exchange for a ‘tip’ to stop coronavirus infections and the race of the Delta variant. It is the “people’s war” against the virus. And this is what happens in a city in China, in Heihe, in the province of Heilongjiang, not far from the border with Russia, where the authorities – reported the Global Times – offer 100,000 yuan (the equivalent of over 13,000 euros) to inhabitants in exchange for “key clues” after “the last outbreak with 240 infections recorded since Sunday” in an Asian giant that continues to aim for the ‘zero Covid’ strategy. For the authorities, the newspaper wrote, “tracing the origins of the virus and the chain of transmission is the top priority” and the hope is “active cooperation” together with a warning for those who should hide information deemed valuable with the risk of “severe punishment”. The population is urged to immediately report “clues” on cases of illegal hunting or, for example, smuggling of animals. The data communicated today by the National Health Commission and reported by the Xinhua agency speak of 43 new cases of local transmission of Covid-19 , eight of which in Heilongjiang province, of 19 new ‘imported’ cases and 74 cases related to asymptomatic patients. Since the onset of the pandemic, China, which first dealt with the coronavirus in Wuhan, has reported a total of 97,885 confirmed infections and 4,636 deaths.