(Bloomberg) — China is experiencing a near-record number of COVID-19 cases, prompting major cities from Beijing to Shanghai to re-enforcing sweeping restrictions on people’s movement and mass testing trainings to involve developing outbreaks.
On Tuesday, 28,183 new infections were recorded nationwide, up from 27,307 on Monday and just short of the record of 28,973 reached in April when Shanghai locked itself in amid an uncontrollable number of cases.
Beihing is relaxing restrictions as the number of COVID-19 cases rises in China. Bloomberg
The surge in infections comes at a crucial time for China, with guidance from smarter leaders for a more targeted method of containing Covid, leading to confusion and setbacks on the ground. Point virus playbook published by Beijing: Officials in some places are re-enforcing mass testing orders and lockdowns, while trying to achieve the overall purpose of suppressing Covid.
While the government is wary of citywide lockdown orders, such as those seen in Shanghai earlier this year and more recently in the southwestern megacity of Chengdu, a growing network of restrictions means a total of 48 Chinese cities are subject to some sort of problem. Movement restrictions at the district level or on a large scale. as known through Nomura Holdings Inc.
Meanwhile, chaos has returned to China’s largest iPhone factory, with staff at the Foxconn Technology Group factory in Zhengzhou, eastern China, clashing with staff in the early hours of Wednesday amid anger over strict viral restrictions there.
The production, known as the “iPhone City” for its scale, has been on a closed loop for weeks after the spread of Covid in the surrounding city and its access to the factory.
In the latest restrictive measures, Shanghai banned newcomers to the city from public posts for five days starting Thursday, as the financial hub seeks to insulate itself from the broader wave of covid.
People traveling to Shanghai, which reported 68 cases on Tuesday, will be banned from restaurants, pubs, shopping malls, supermarkets and rainy markets, as well as internet cafes and other entertainment venues for five days, the local government said Tuesday.
ÀBeijing, which reported the first covid deaths in the country in just six months over the weekend, citizens will need to provide a negative result from a PCR test taken in the last 48 hours before they can enter public places or take a bus from Thursday.
Schools in swaths of the capital, which recorded 1,476 infections on Tuesday, were closed as students are asked to stay home.
Shenzhen will also require citizens to provide negative PCR effects in the previous 48 hours before making public submissions or entering public posts starting Thursday.
Areas of Guangzhou, home to China’s largest outbreak, remain closed. Haizhu district, which began enforcing covid restrictions a month ago, extended its lockdown in places on Tuesday night. The restrictions in Chongqing mean that the city is largely locked, despite the lack of order or radical directive.
Elsewhere, major cities redeployed mass testing. Tianjin ordered two rounds of testing for its other 14 million residents on Friday and Saturday, sparking a developing outbreak. The city, which is close to Beijing, reported 245 new cases, tripling from a week ago.
Chengdu, which began coming out of lockdown in mid-September, is also conducting mass testing in some spaces this week.
The measures show the difficulty of applying a lighter and more specific technique to Covid when the goal is to suppress outbreaks. The more contagious omicron variants made the Covid Zero playbook effectively implemented in China the initial virus outbreak in Wuhan virtually unsustainable without drastic restrictions.
The rollback of tighter restrictions has undermined optimism in financial markets after most sensible executives pointed to the more targeted Covid focus more than a week ago.
Bloomberg
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