Mass testing pushes some cities to financial limits

To finance the expensive Covid measures, local governments in China are turning to funds that were actually intended to reduce poverty and develop infrastructure. This was reported by the Financial Times on Wednesday. Authorities in Jilin reportedly use a “significant” amount of a poverty fund to pay for Covid mass testing, while Quanzhou is said to have tapped into an infrastructure fund. According to analysts, the mass tests could cost China as much as $250 billion in total if expanded to all first and second tier cities. This would be equivalent to over nine percent of China’s tax revenues from 2021.