More than 800,000 people locked down in the world’s first covid outbreak in 2019, as other Chinese cities sealed off streets and homes.
Chinese cities from Wuhan in central China to Xining in the northwest are doubling down on Covid-19 restrictions, sealing buildings, closing neighborhoods and throwing millions of people into misery in a race to prevent the spread of epidemics.
On Thursday, China reported a third direct day of more than 1,000 new covid cases across the country, a modest tally of the tens of thousands that coincided with the day it sent Shanghai into a full lockdown earlier this year, enough to cause more restrictions and restrictions around the world. The country.
Wuhan, the world’s first COVID-19 outbreak since 2019, reported between 20 and 25 new infections during the day this week. The city recorded 240 cases in the past 14 days. The local government ordered more than 800,000 people in one district to stay home until Oct. 30.
Wuhan also suspended the sale of red meat in parts of the city, according to photographs and social media posts, after the government said a covid case had been linked to the local red meat chain.
Guangzhou, China’s fourth-largest city in terms of economic output and the provincial capital of Guangdong, on Thursday closed more streets and neighborhoods and kept other people in their homes as the new spaces were deemed high-risk in a Covid resurgence that persisted into its fourth week.
In Xining, capital of Qinghai province, social media posts reported food shortages and inflation in goods prices as the health government in the city of another 2. 5 million people rushed to involve a Covid spike after the National Day holiday week in early October.
“In the face of the threat of transmission, some large fruit and vegetable warehouses have been closed and quarantined,” a Xining government official said Wednesday.
The number of coronavirus cases in China has remained low by global standards, yet its ultra-strict containment measures opposed to the highly transmissible variant of Omicron have weighed heavily on the world’s second-largest economy and rattled money markets.
Other major cities in China, besides Datong and Xi’an, put new brakes on this week to curb local outbreaks.
In Beijing, Universal Resort theme park closed Wednesday after at least one guest tested positive for coronavirus.
In Hengzhou, there was an outbreak at a factory that employs about 300,000 people and is known as the world’s largest iPhone producer.
Foxconn Technology Group, which manages the facility, declared the outbreak Wednesday, but said “the operation and production matrix . . . they are stable. “
“Health and protection measures for workers are maintained,” the Taiwanese electronics maker said, adding that it “provides guarantees of subsistence, adding curtain supply, mental convenience and responsive feedback. “
The company did not specify the number of workers affected by the outbreak, but said it was a “small number” and that unsubstantiated online rumors of tens of thousands of infections were “demonstrably false. “
“At present, epidemic prevention works in Zhengzhou are progressing steadily, and the effect on Array. . . It’s controllable,” he said.
China has continuously vowed to stick to its zero-tolerance reaction to Covid-19 and put in place mandatory government measures to engage the virus.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report