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By Nectar Gan, Yong Xiong and CNN’s Beijing office
China’s megacity of Chengdu has extinguished its Covid lockdown for the time being, with no end in sight as the government struggles to eliminate an outbreak that continues despite strict restrictions that have disrupted business and life.
Home to 21 million more people and capital of southwest Sichuan province, Chengdu closed on Sept. 1, becoming the largest Chinese city to grind to a halt since Shanghai’s painful two-month closure in the spring. The city is also a major production hub for Apple.
On Sunday, when citywide testing was due to end, Chengdu extended the closure for most of the city and ordered new rounds of mass testing until Wednesday.
On Wednesday night, the government announced that the lockdown measures would be extended in the maximum districts, covering 16 million people. Mass testing will continue every day and the city aims to reduce infections within a week.
Authorities have not revealed when the lockdown will end, only saying that the restrictions will be “dynamically adjusted according to the progression of the epidemic and the need for prevention and (Covid). “
Chengdu reported 116 infections on Wednesday, bringing its total number of cases to nearly 1,800 in the past month, a very extensive outbreak by China’s zero-Covid strategy standards.
“Three days, 3 days and 3 days, when can the blockade end?” wrote a Chengdu resident on Weibo, the Chinese platform similar to Twitter.
Some districts banned the delivery of what they described as “non-daily necessities,” adding tea, coffee, fondue and barbecues. Cafes, bakeries and barbecues were also ordered closed, according to the government council.
Across China, local governments are under immense pressure to eliminate infections at all costs, the latest countdown to a Communist Party assembly in October, when leader Xi Jinping is expected to win a third term that violates the rules.
More than 70 cities have been totally or partially blocked by covid since last August, affecting more than 300 million people, according to a CNN tally.
As of Wednesday, China had 1604 high-threat spaces, 1730 medium-threat spaces and 309 low-threat spaces, according to the country’s National Health Commission. The length of a threat domain can range from a store to a residential complex. High-threat spaces are strictly forbidden to leave their homes, and those in medium-threat spaces are confined to their concessions.
In some cities, the government appears to be ill-prepared for lockdown, leading to severe food shortages.
Guiyang, capital of the southwestern province of Guizhou, placed its main districts in four days on Monday after reporting 132 cases. On Wednesday, many guiyang citizens took to social media to ask for help in case of food shortages.
The situation gave the impression of being dire in Huaguoyuan, a mega apartment complex that houses some 400,000 citizens, according to state media. Social media posts show screenshots of citizens begging for food, with some claiming they have been hungry for three days.
The local government raised the challenge and apologized for the lack of materials on Wednesday. “Affected by the epidemic, our residents . . . they have difficulty meeting basic needs. We are doing our best to solve the challenge,” the nanming district government said. Said.
Yang Rui, a resident of Huaguoyuan, said he won government materials on Thursday morning, but many others have not yet earned them. “Supplies are limited, it will take time,” he said.
Guiyang is home to Apple’s Chinese data center. Guizhou-Cloud Big Data, which built the knowledge center with Apple, said in a letter to staff posted on the company’s official WeChat account: “To ensure the proper functioning of the provincial covid prevention system, many of us stayed here in our mail. (The staff) didn’t stop by the house once for a full week, and didn’t fully sleep the week.
CNN has reached out to Apple for comment on the ongoing blockades in Chengdu and Guiyang.
In Shanghai, guests of the Disney Resort hotel were hit by a two-day shutdown on Wednesday, after the government discovered that a former hotel guest had been in close contact with a Covid patient.
And in Beijing, the government is struggling to curb an epidemic centered on college campuses. The city reported 14 local infections on Tuesday and 10 infections on Wednesday.
Nationwide, China reported 1,439 new infections to the National Health Commission on Wednesday.
El-CNN-Wire™
CNN’s Alex Stambaugh contributed to the report.
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