In China, COVID-19 has been spreading rapidly. In the meantime, dissatisfaction with the ‘zero corona’, which implements an intensive quarantine policy, is gradually growing. Let’s talk in detail with reporter Lee Do-seong this morning.
Reporter Lee, China’s economic center, Shanghai, is said to be closed due to COVID-19?
[기자]
In China, there were more than 5,000 confirmed cases of Corona 19 for two days in a row on Friday and Saturday.
Among them, more than 2,000 confirmed cases were reported in Shanghai, where omicron mutations are rapidly spreading.
The city of Shanghai then decided to test all citizens for COVID-19.
Shanghai has a population of over 20 million and is ten times larger than Seoul.
It will be divided into east and west with the Huangpu River as the center, and the eastern region will be sealed for four days from today (28th) and the rest of the region will be sealed off for four days from the 1st of the next month.
If you are in a containment area, you have to stay at home and there is no public transport such as buses or subways.
Businesses are urging people to work from home, except for public services like water and electricity.
China has been implementing a zero-corona policy since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak.
In Chinese, 零政策, interpreted as ‘initialization policy’, means that when a confirmed case occurs, the number of confirmed cases is returned to ‘0’ by blocking the spread and isolating.
However, as strong measures such as city blockades have been prolonged for a long time, dissatisfaction is being expressed everywhere.
Earlier, when Shenzhen, one of the four largest cities in China, was shut down, a video of residents protesting against the quarantine authorities went viral on social media.
[앵커]
Let’s keep up with the news about China. Last week, a passenger plane crashed in a mountainous area, killing 132 people, including passengers and crew.
[기자]
The command headquarters, which is handling the accident, said yesterday afternoon that they found the second black box.
Two days after the accident, the cockpit voice recorder installed in the passenger plane was recovered, and the flight data recorder was found.
They found both black boxes that could lead to the cause of the accident.
This allows you to find out the altitude, speed, and movement of the plane at the time, as well as what conversations were going on in the cockpit.
It is expected that the work to determine the cause of the accident and why the plane plunged will gain momentum.
Earlier, Chinese authorities confirmed that all 132 people on board were killed in the crash of a China Eastern Airlines flight on the 21st, and no traces of explosives were found.
[앵커]
Let’s check out the domestic news. The Seoul Metropolitan Government has limited the maximum speed of major roads to 50 km/h for safety, but some roads are easing the speed limit again?
[기자]
The Seoul Metropolitan Government implemented the ‘Safe Speed 5030’ policy in December 2020.
In order to reduce pedestrian fatalities due to traffic accidents, the speed of vehicles on main roads is limited to 50 km/h and on back roads to 30 km/h.
However, there were voices expressing inconvenience by limiting the speed collectively without considering the nature of the road.
As a result of last year’s survey of citizens’ opinions by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 90% of the respondents also expressed an opinion that ‘some sections require speed adjustment’.
Then, yesterday, it was announced that the speed limit on 17 Han River bridges and 3 sections of general roads would be raised to 60 km/h.
These roads have common characteristics such as smooth traffic and no pedestrian roads, so the risk of accidents is not high.
The new standards will be applied from the middle of the next month when the construction of traffic safety signs begins at the end of this month and the construction is completed.
