Even if, as Dr Zhong acknowledged, the pace of rising infections is laden with uncertainty, a rebound in cases was always likely, and many in China appear steeled to living with a background hum of COVID-19 infections and sometimes COVID-19 deaths. “People have become used to infections, and they see this as normal in the post-COVID era,” Lin Zixian, 36, who works for a technology company in Beijing, said in a telephone interview. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, still often wears a medical mask when he meets people indoors. But Mr Lin said that he and other members of his family...