Opinion | How zero-Covid was a costly lesson for China’s local governments
- Authorities throughout the country spent billions on keeping the coronavirus at bay
- The effort has left them with a legion of temporary hospitals and testing booths – and the question of what to do with them
A complete picture is not possible because the declarations do not give a breakdown of exactly how the money was spent. But they do offer some telling clues.
Authorities in the southern province of Guangdong said they spent 71 billion yuan (US$10.4 billion) last year on Covid containment. The outlay covered vaccination, PCR tests, subsidies to health workers, corporate subsidies and help to other provinces, according to the government budget released in January.
But in the city of Guangzhou alone, the government built 16 of the hospitals providing nearly 40,000 beds and another 14 simpler quarantine facilities with 28,000 beds by November last year, just weeks before the zero-Covid policy was scrapped, Guangdong-based news site Sfccn.com reported.
Elsewhere, Zhejiang province spent 43.4 billion yuan and Beijing 30 billion yuan on Covid containment last year, while the impoverished province of Shaanxi spent 19 billion yuan, Caixin reported.
