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Half a million people now crossing China's borders per day
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China now open to world - state leader tells World Economic Forum
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Medical workers rush to vaccinate elderly
By Bernard Orr
BEIJING, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Millions of urban workers were on the move across China on Wednesday ahead of the expected Friday peak of its Lunar New Year mass migration, as China's leaders looked to get its COVID-battered economy moving.
Unfettered when officials last month ended three years of some of the world's tightest COVID-19 restrictions, workers streamed into railway stations and airports to head to rural hometowns, sparking fears of a broadening virus outbreak.
Economists are scrutinising the holiday season, known as the Spring Festival, for glimmers of rebounding consumption across the world's second largest economy after new GDP data on Tuesday revealed a sharp economic slowdown in China.
While some analysts expect that recovery to be slow, China's Vice-Premier Liu He declared to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Tuesday that China was open to the world after three years of pandemic isolation.
National Immigration Administration officials said that, on average, half a million people had been moved in or out of China per day since its borders opened on Jan. 8, state media reported.
But as workers flood out of megacities, such as Shanghai, where officials say the virus has peaked, many are heading to towns and villages where unvaccinated elderly have yet to be exposed to COVID.
LARGE ROLLING SUITCASES, BOXES OF GIFTS
As the COVID surge intensified, some were putting the virus out of their mind as they headed for the departure gates.
Travellers bustled through railway stations and subways in Beijing and Shanghai, many ferrying large wheeled suitcases and boxes stuffed with food and gifts.
"I used to be a little worried (about the COVID-19 epidemic)," said migrant worker Jiang Zhiguang, waiting among the crowds at Shanghai's Hongqiao Railway Station.
"Now it doesn't matter anymore. Now it's okay if you get infected. You'll just be sick for two days only," Jiang, aged 30, told Reuters.
The infection rate in the southern city of Guangzhou, capital of China's most populous province, has now passed 85%, local health officials announced on Wednesday.
In more isolated areas, state medical workers are this week going door-to-door in some outlying villages to vaccinate the elderly, with the official Xinhua news agency describing the effort on Tuesday as the "last mile".