World

Outbreaks in China Prompt Lockdowns and Fears of Economic Woes


More than a dozen Chinese cities are grappling with a series of Covid-19 outbreaks fueled by Omicron sub-variants, leading to widespread closures and mass quarantines of millions of people. aggravate China’s declining economy.

Just a few days after the Chinese economy reported its worst quarterly performance For more than two years, officials show no sign of abandoning the “zero Covid” policy that has affected the economic and social life of the country. The outbreaks are relatively small, with a few hundred cases at most in most places. But Chinese officials, acting at the behest of the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, are looking for all sorts of containment measures to quell outbreaks as soon as they break out.

About 264 million people in 41 cities are currently under full or partial lockdown or other measures, analysts at Nomura, the bank of Japan, wrote in a note on Monday. Last week, the number was about 247 million people in 31 cities, they said.

On Tuesday, China’s National Health Commission reported 699 new cases of domestically transmitted infection, including cases in the capital, Beijing. About a third are in the western province of Gansu, where authorities in the provincial capital, Lanzhou, have temporarily extended a lockdown for some of its four million residents.

Experts say China’s “zero Covid” policy will become increasingly difficult to maintain as newer coronavirus variants become more contagious. According to the report of Yicaia financial news website backed by the Chinese government.

At least 2,000 tourists were stranded over the weekend in Beihai, a popular beach resort town in southern Guangxi province. Authorities there imposed a surprise lockdown after detecting more than 700 cases of local transmission in the past week.

An hour’s boat south of Beihai, tourists visiting Weizhou Island, home to dozens of luxury resorts, have been required to undergo a mandatory inspection. On Sunday, officials closed movie theaters, chess rooms, massage parlors and bars.

In the northern port city of Tianjin, a mass inspection was carried out on Monday for the city’s 12 million residents after two local infections. Authorities closed several public places, including bars, and ordered kindergartens to close for three days.

Shanghai, still reeling with a lock tightly which lasted several months, also ordered another batch of mass testing in multiple city boroughs on Monday.



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