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BUSINESSES, SCHOOLS AND restaurants in the Chinese city of Xi’an will close for one week, officials said today, after it logged a handful of Covid-19 cases.
China is the last major economy wedded to a zero-Covid strategy, deploying snap lockdowns, quarantines and travel curbs in a bid to weed out new infections.
Xi’an – a historic city of 13 million that endured a month-long lockdown at the end of last year – has reported 18 cases since Saturday in a cluster driven by the fast-spreading Omicron variant, according to official notices.
City official Zhang Xuedong said at a press conference today that Xi’an would implement “seven-day temporary control measures” that would “allow society to quieten down as much as possible, reduce mobility… and cut the risk of cross-infection”.
“We must race against both time and the virus … to guard against all possible risks and hidden dangers, and decisively avoid an explosion in community spreading,” Zhang said.
Public entertainment venues including pubs, internet cafes and karaoke bars would shut their doors from midnight on Wednesday, the city government said in a notice.
Restaurants will not be allowed to serve diners indoors but may continue to offer takeaway services, it said.
Schools are to start the summer holiday early and universities will seal off their campuses.
Xi’an – home to the Terracotta Warriors – previously experienced one of China’s longest stay-at-home orders, shutting off for a month between December and January as thousands of Covid cases were detected.
City authorities came under fire for their handling of the lockdown, which was plagued by food supply issues and medical tragedies stemming from patients being denied access to hospitals.
Some residents in the tourist city expressed dismay at the closures on social media Tuesday.
“It’s like they’re addicted to lockdowns. What else do they even do?” wrote one on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.
“Here we go again,” complained another.
China logged 335 new domestic cases on Tuesday, most of which were asymptomatic, according to the National Health Commission (NHC).
China’s latest significant flare-up is in central Anhui province, where 1.7 million people in two counties were under orders to stay at home as of Tuesday.
Around 90 percent of the nearly 300 infections reported in the province on Monday were asymptomatic, according to the NHC. Over 1,000 cases have been detected during the outbreak so far.
Separately, city officials in Shanghai have launched a new round of mandatory Covid testing in most districts after “successively recording many local positive cases” since Sunday.
Many of the commercial hub’s 25 million people will have to take two tests between Tuesday and Thursday, authorities said.
Despite a gruelling, two-month citywide lockdown being formally lifted at the end of May, parts of Shanghai have simmered under local lockdowns and testing drives after finding sporadic new cases.
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As soon as his lips move you know he’s lying…
@rolyat ecnal: Its like the ghost of Ray McSharry speaks when Martins lips move.
The Irish Daily Mail ran the story, but according to Martin its just Sinn Féin propaganda spin… Yeah cause the Daily Mail is definitely a shinner newspaper! You’ve been caught with your pants down Micheál!
@Frank Cauldhame: I actually meant Ray Burke, lol.
Did anyone watch the questions in the Dail. It was scandalous. He was asked 3 questions clearly. And refused to answer. The Ceann Comhairle wouldn’t even push him for an answer. He went off about SF and criticised them and flat out refused to answer even one of the questions.
1. Are the ministers going to the roadshow?
2. Did you approve it?
3. Who are they going to meet?
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: Glad you watched it too, more of should really as you really get to see what this government is all about
MM seems to have adopted the policy of not answering questions during Leaders Questions on top of the already well established policy of SF mud slinging & telling lies, he did it again today.
It’s absolutely disgraceful what goes on in the Dáil, these days it seems like representative & parliamentary democracy has gone out the window
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: MM is useless. FF actions are going to push the votes to SF and based on the last election they could very well be in the driving seat. Leaders should not be allowed to avoid answering questions. As for MM criticisms of SF its all deflection, we’ve heard these all before. Time to go.
He couldn’t speak because they hadn’t told him what to say.
Waiting on mortgage approval and I can’t tell you how despondent I feel considering I’ll have 320k to find a house in the Fingal County Council area. And that’s if I even get approval in the first place. I hope everyone remembers this in 2025. Or even earlier if we’re any way lucky.
Both Martin’s & Varadker’s attitude in the Dail in response to questions from SF is despicable and so childish. They really look like children. They are not only disrespecting the ethis of Leaders Questions, but the citizens that also want answers.
183,312 vacant homes in Ireland. like we need more cuckoos
https://www.money.co.uk/mortgages/empty-homes
@Sean Byrne: What have PSR funds got to do with vacant property? Totally speaking out of both sides of peoples mouths when it comes to housing in Ireland… are they charging high rents or are the big bad boogie men funds buying houses to leave them vacant? You can’t have it both ways. “Cuckoo funds” are institutional investors that are needed for rental developments, generally larger scale, they are almost always long term investors such as pension funds, they do need policing but they also don’t need this utter tosh about them being responsible for all the ills in the world
@Sean Byrne: those houses are nobodys business except their owners ,it’s not their fault that there’s a million and half new residents in the country in the last ten years
@Gerard Heery: Dereliction, massive rents, massive house prices, tax breaks to cuckoos, non-implementation with the vacant sites register, homelessness and the 3% of the vacant housing stock required to solve it are everyone’s business.
@Local Ore: Consider that this FF led, and previous FG led, governments main argument for vulture/cuckoo/foreign funds is to provide investment and stimulus to a housing market in woefully short supply. Then consider the amount of property hoarding and the lack of legislation to govern this and you start to see the difficulty in accepting this narrative.
@Local Ore: in other words cuckoo funds cause rack-renting.
@Gerard Heery: when you balance the emigration of Irish youth against immigration then the net immigration is far short of 1.5 million. Net figure of 34,000 immigration in 2018( CSO latest figures). The highest it has been since 2008.
So that argument doesn’t fly.
@Local Ore: both, an example being Kennedy Wilson who own Capital One Dock, almost €4K a month for the starter two bed, 80% vacancy since it was built, 22 stories and just sitting there. That one company own thousands of apartments in the city. They will keep them vacant rather than lowering the rent to meet the market! Between them and the other cuckoo funds they can manipulate and price fix due to their dominance in the market!
I’m sure they have plans .. just like the planning permission in Drumcondra last week , given against the people and the council , government said yes.. Someone somewhere is
Is benefiting from this.. it’s a disgrace .
Shameful.
At least one of the men who created the economic destruction of this country will not need anyone to shread evidence that led to the collapse of his criminal trail after today. Remember we as a nation will be repaying for his gangsterism facilated by FFG/ Greens for generations to come.
Next 2 weeks are critical.
Didn’t he claim there was no bank bailout? Serial spoofer.
Him and his mates, and I include FG are carpet baggers. They all deserve to be run at the next election.
Cuckoo funds is some moniker. Doesn’t sound good does it.
The day he gives straight answer to a question, you will have to pick me up off a floor, having suffered from shock!
A weasel.
When the housing bubble was collapsing, the government of the day introduced 100% mortgages to breath life into it. They also had the pension reserve invest in the late noughties. In the lead in they did everything to hamper supply, two Bacon reports had to be produced. Here we go again.
These companies so large they have disproportionate effect. House price are now unrelated to earning and all the lights must be flashing red. We’ve a bubble here since 2017 the inflation coming from large instiutions. Our house price now everything your Mam/Dad can get you and your own saving and everything you can ge from bank for two people. Its Not sustainable. Like 2006 , rem the words Soft landing. Government are trying to keep the air in the balloon. Once the investors slow we;ve mortgages on properties in negative equity and all those EU banking rules will seize all up again.
This it total and utter non-sense of the highest order. More of Irish politicians using the housing market as a political football to fool the public.
Cuckoo funds are literally just PSR funds or institutional investors for the private rental sector, they do not buy up individual properties and they are essential in every housing market on earth as they allow developers to build in higher quantities, I’m not a FF or FG supporter but if they are attracting these funds over France, Germany or the UK, I say well bl**dy done! Why in the name of god would any sain politician think this is a bad thing unless they are pandering to a minority of people who don’t understand that a housing market needs a range of options for investment and development.
@Local Ore: But what about the Robin thinking that she’s raising her own chicks and then one day she turns around and her son is a great big cuckoo?
I don’t like the sound of these funds atall.
@Vonvonic: The “cuckoo funds” name is only being used in Ireland as they want it to be a political football. Absolutely the funds need policing, which the government did an ok job of with the tax they added and the need to register the investment for its purpose, but the nonsense that they are “evil” and responsible for all the ills in the housing sector is total and utter muck talk. It’s working though, if Mary Lou says it often enough and with the right tone then people who don’t understand will row in and grab the pitch forks.
@Local Ore: I have no problem with the logic of these funds. They make sense. The idea that they will be producing “affordable” housing is a bit far-fetched though. I’m only going on the figures I’ve read about. I really don’t think they’re the fix we’re looking for at the moment.
@Vonvonic: 1000%, I don’t believe they produce affordable housing, I’m in full agreement with you there, but they are needed in the market to help developers build rental properties at scale. Dublin and Cork and Galway, etc., need this kind of investment, you don’t build a 5 story apartment building in phases, so you need these funds.
SF is playing games here demonising these funds and making it seem like they are the big bad Wolf all the time and people are falling for it, it’s a big reason I can’t trust them as a party…. Not saying I trust FF either though
@Local Ore: 100% To be honest the sh!t slinging in politics generally is torture. I honestly can’t figure out how the parties , with all their advisors haven’t figured out what a turn off it is.
@Vonvonic: Ireland badly needs a new, decent, political party!
@Local Ore: Your delusional. What happens when these fund are buying so much property that it reduces the amount of houses available and the price of houses rises and rises to the point where we are the 2nd most expensive country in the EU. Our parents got a mortgage for £25,000 and the same house today sells for 450k. Something. People who do not qualify for Mortgages are being asked to pay rents of €1,800.
There is a whole generation locked out of housing. If the govt don’t kick these funds out and increase supply then they will 100% be booted out in the next election. Its also worth noting that these funds pay little or no tax at all on their profits. Also there is a Tribunal in waiting with how NAMA managed all the bad loans in this country. Companies made millions overnight with fire sales of 100s of houses that were never sold to the public. Our politicians are supposed to act in the best interests of the people not to do favours to unknown shareholders from foreign countries
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: You’ve conflated a number of topics there. Investment funds don’t lower the number of available properties, they invest in bulk builds. I’ve worked in public sector economies, successfully, resolving issues like housing supply for 15 years and the only fixes I’ve seen work are the ones that the majority of commenters on thejournal reject and conflate time and again. A housing market is not a single thing – build and let first time buyers buy them all… that’s the definition of delusional. Not to mention the price of a house in the 80s being used in your comment… how much was a car then, a loaf of bread, milk? It’s all the government of irelands fault, global inflation.. Look, think whatever and vote whatever, obviously the boogeyman tactic being used is working
@Local Ore: So who are the funds that are coming in bulk buying properties from builders? The builders put the money up and built them to sell! There is nothing wrong with that. But the investment funds from Canada that buy them in bulk to rent them out for very high rents? They do not pay tax on these rents because of sweet heart deals. Their sole job is to make money for the investors who are from Canada! People in Ireland work their *** off to make people in Canada richer. That isn’t right.
People cannot stay renting at flat for the rest of their lives paying a rent of €1800/month? If the rent was affordable like €6-800 maybe I would agree with you. The monthly repayments for a mortgage of €750,000 is €1800 a month. I don’t believe these apartments were bought for 750k. The market is broken same as in 2008 when it collapsed.
Maybe you might think the way you do because every night you go home to a house you own and relax. What about the people that can’t do that because of their circumstances and the fact housing is no longer affordable to the ordinary person. There are people afraid of being homeless because the market is the way it is and that is not ok.
@Local Ore: spoken like a true FG lackey. Find a fkin bin and get in.
@Local Ore: yea? Then why wouldn’t he say that if that’s the case? You’re omitting a lot of details and showing no understanding of how investors have been integral to creating the housing crisis. Unless you don’t “believe” there’s a housing crisis either. Look outside your own remit for some perspective.
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: where did you get your mortgage payments from? They are way off
@JustMeHere: I have never, and will never, vote FG or FF. Nice comment though, it definitely shows your level of perspective and insight into any discussion.
@Rob Gale: There is definitely a housing crisis. I don’t believe the government, or successive governments have done anywhere near a good job and public servants have done a terrible job with housing strategy. I’m not standing up for the government, I am trying say that you need a comprehensive plan that includes investment funds, including PSR, capital from central and local government, individual investment and more to fix a housing crises and it’s totally disingenuous to just call out that PSR funds and say they are bad, get them out of the country, that won’t work. But this country and its peoples reactions to everything is led by social media, no different to the US and the UK and it’s all outrage all the time…. What’s the point in commenting unless it’s “fup de guberment”
That’s a yes then
But what about the Robin thinking that she’s raising her own chicks and then one day she turns around and her son is a great big cuckoo?
I don’t like the sound of these funds atall.
Sham politics strikes yet again. Someone somewhere is getting money off of this. All wreaks of corruption and brown envelopes. Same old cronies running the show. Same old lies being peddled to the people. Its just laughable that years later the country is still bring ran into the ground by the same bunch of grey haired shams!!!
There’s one p in apartments Declan. If built under this government, those apartments will be sold en block to a vulture fund, who will pay no tax on exorbitant rents. No doubt you’re a ffg gombeen who thinks this is okay.
have your say