China finalized in the last few hours the greatest isolation of people to stop a resurgence of coronavirus. About 30 million citizens from 13 localities were confined to be analyzed, while they suspended flights Inside and outside of the country, cut driving hours and temporarily prohibited the opening of factories.
Massive lockdowns were, so far, the only measure that gave that country positive results in stopping the virus. Meanwhile, the Chinese Ministry of Health is racing against the clock and massive testing on a scale never seen before since the start of the pandemic.
That was the way the government managed to contain infections after the first wave that began in late 2019 in the city of Wuhan. However, the country recently faced multiple outbreaks linked to the arrival of the Omicron variant.
According to data from the National Health Commission (CNS), the country reported 5,280 cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hoursthe highest figure since the first wave of the pandemic in early 2020.
The numbers are small compared to other countries, but under China’s strategy of “zero covid” even the smallest outbreak is met with severe measures.
Therefore, in the new scenario, at least 13 Chinese cities face full lockdowns and several others have partial closures.
The northeastern province of Jilin It was the hardest hit, with more than 3,000 cases in the last 24 hours. While the provincial capital of changchumwith 9 million inhabitants, as well as other cities, remain under stay-at-home orders.
The technological metropolis of shenzhen (south), with 17 million inhabitants, located at the gates of Hong Kong.
These measures caused the closure of numerous factories in the city, including that of the Taiwanese giant Foxconn, the main supplier of Apple. In addition, the air authorities ordered that dozens of internal flights from Beijing and Shanghai airports were cancelled.
“The recent Covid outbreak and new restrictions, in particular the lockdown in Shenzhen, will weigh on consumption and will cause short-term supply disruptionscommented analyst Tommy Wu of Oxford Economics.
And he added that, with this, it will be a “challenge” for China to reach its official goal of economic growth of 5.5 percent for this year.
