Virus uncertainty for China’s Year of the Ox suppliers

WUHAN, China (AP) – Vibrant red lanterns line up in an alley in Wuhan, China, but customers just arrive. Around the corner, Gong Linhua recalled previous years, when his store was packed and the street outside was overflowing with snack carts.

“This is the first time in 20 years of business that I am in this situation,” said the seller of decorations for the Lunar New Year. At 60, she is considering retiring if the economy doesn’t improve.

Even in China, where COVID-19 is largely under control and economic growth has accelerated to 6.5% in the last three months of 2020, the recovery is uneven and new outbreaks are hurting business for some.

The winter brought China’s biggest resurgence so far, with more than 2,000 new cases and two deaths in January. The numbers are small compared to most other countries, but enough for concerned officials to avoid trips and activities for Lunar New Year, one of the biggest holidays of the year.

This is a blow to airlines, trains, hotels and restaurants and a reversal of the last major holiday in October, when tourism grew again. Near the end of the food chain are stores that stock ornaments for the Year of the Ox.

With about two weeks until New Year’s Day on February 12, Wang Cuilan remained optimistic, although sales have been about half a normal year so far.

She and her husband have been operating a store in the alley near the Gong store for about 20 years. Business has declined for hotels and entertainment venues, its most expensive customers, so decor orders have also declined, she said.

This year is worse for sales than in the past. Wuhan, the city that suffered the greatest impact from the pandemic in China, was blocked just two days before the Lunar New Year in 2020. By that time, most items from the Year of the Rat had already been sold.

But some customers were arriving last week after a brief virus scare in Wuhan kept people at home earlier this month.

“If the epidemic remains stable and there is good weather, I believe everyone will be exhausted in the past 10 days or more,” said Wang.

Business was not the only thing on his mind. The Lunar New Year is when families come together. For many migrant workers, who leave their hometowns for better paid jobs, it is the only return trip each year.

Wang wondered if his 26-year-old daughter, who works in neighboring Hunan province, will miss the New Year at home for the second year in a row.

The government has not banned holiday travel, but strongly discourages it. Many cities are demanding several negative results from the COVID test for outsiders, before and after their arrival.

“She wants to go back,” said Wang. “It will come back if the government does not implement more stringent measures.”

Car, plane and train travel appear to have dropped by about 75% in the first three days of the holiday period, which started Thursday, according to the Ministry of Transport and state media reports. The ministry predicted that travel will drop 40% over the 40-day period compared to 2019.

Economic analysts say the overall impact may be limited, as factories, stores and farms can continue to operate instead of closing for a week or more, as is the case on the holiday.

When dusk fell in Wuhan, Lunar New Year vendors began to bring their products, picking up giant lanterns one by one from the outside shelves and carrying boxes of stuffed oxen. Wang’s son and nephew helped pack his store.

Any items with an ox theme that are not sold are likely to be downloaded and discarded. In the Chinese zodiac, an animal appears only once every 12 years.

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Associated Press writer Joe McDonald of Beijing contributed to this report.