As China battles the worst Covid wave in 2 years, lockdowns are enacted
Key Takeaways:
- On Monday, Chinese authorities reported 2,300 new virus cases. The day before, China saw a one-day spike of over 3,400 Covid-19 cases, the highest daily figure in two years.
- According to AFP, China's strict zero-covid approach is here to stay as authorities try to avoid implementing mass city-wide lockdowns.
According to Reuters, Chinese authorities reported 2,300 new virus cases on Monday. China had seen a single-day spike of over 3,400 Covid-19 cases the day before, the highest daily figure in two years.
As cases spread across the country, the restrictions are being scaled back after two years of virtually closed borders, mass testing, targeted lockdowns, and quarantines.
Lockdowns and tighter restrictions are implemented.
According to reports, seventeen million people in Shenzhen, China's tech hub, began their 1st full day under lockdown on Monday as the city battled an Omicron flare-up in factories as well as neighborhoods linked to nearby Hong Kong which is reporting dozens of daily deaths as the virus spreads.
Shanghai, China's largest city, was also sealed off on Monday, with several residential areas and offices closed as city officials attempted to avoid a full lockdown. On Monday, the city reported around 170 new virus cases.
From Monday, buses and the subway network in China's Dongguan city in Guangdong province were shut down.
Since the beginning of March, at least 5 cities in the province have been shut down, including Changchun, the province's major industrial hub, whose nine million residents were ordered to stay at home on Friday.
The mass-testing process has begun.
China announced on Friday that the general public would be able to use Covid-19 antigen self-test kits that do not require medical personnel to take samples for the first time. The country's Health Commission also announced plans to dramatically increase Covid-19 testing.
The zero-tolerance policy is here to stay.
According to the news agency AFP, China's strict zero-covid approach is here to stay as authorities try to avoid implementing mass city-wide lockdowns.
China has so far used a combination of emergency lockdowns, mass testing, and travel restrictions to keep sporadic domestic outbreaks under control.
Despite Omicron's low fatality rate, top medical expert Zhang Wenhong stated Monday that China cannot relax its zero-Covid policy just yet. "Shortly, China must continue to adopt the community Covid-zero strategy," Zhang wrote on social media. "However, this does not imply that we will continue to use the lockdown and full testing strategy indefinitely."
The number of cases reported in China since the outbreak began, just over 115,000, is a small fraction of those reported elsewhere. The official death toll has remained below 5,000 people.