Guangdong Racks Up $22 Billion Bill Funding ‘Zero Covid’

Guangdong, China’s largest provincial economy, spent 146.8 billion yuan ($21.9 billion) in health care costs financing “zero Covid” over the past three years, which included mass testing and vaccination campaigns, and local government coffers bore the brunt.

In 2020, governments of all levels in the South China province allocated 30.3 billion yuan to Covid-19 containment measures. That figure increased to 45.4 billion yuan in 2021 and 71.1 billion yuan last year, according to reports published by the provincial finance department.