Health workers perform a second round of tests on residents on January 10, in Hua County, Anyang City, Henan Province. (Photo: Wang Zirui / Costfoto / Future Publishing / Getty Images)
A third Chinese city has been subject to strict closure as the country attempts to contain localized outbreaks of Covid-19, local authorities reported on Tuesday.
That brings the total number of people confined to their homes in China to around 20 million, with just over three weeks before the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The 5.5 million residents of Anyang City, central Henan Province, cannot leave their homes, while shops, restaurants and factories remain closed, Anyang municipal government said. .
More than 4,000 students and staff from a school in Anyang have been admitted to government-run quarantine centers after nine people tested positive for the virus, local officials added.
The city has reported a total of 84 cases of COVID-19 since it detected two local infections of the omicron variant on January 8.
As of Tuesday, China reported 110 new symptomatic local cases of covid-19, according to the National Health Commission (CNS) in a statement. China counts asymptomatic cases separately.
Strict closures: Anyang is the third Chinese city, after Xi’an, in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, and Yuzhou, also in Henan, to apply a total blockade by covid.
On December 23, restrictions were imposed on Xi’an’s 13 million residents. In the days and weeks that followed, complaints of food shortages and reports of patients deprived of medical care shocked the nation.
On January 2, Yuzhou, home to 1.2 million people, was stranded after three asymptomatic cases were recorded.
Yuzhou on Monday recorded 74 local symptomatic cases, the largest current epidemic in the country, according to the NHC.
On the other hand, 29 residential communities in Tianjin City are under closure after the presence of omicron was detected in at least two residents on Saturday, which is the first community spread of this highly contagious variant in China.
Tianjin reported 21 infections – 11 symptomatic and 10 asymptomatic – on Monday, bringing its current outbreak total to 53.
The city of 14 million people is located just 130 kilometers southeast of Beijing, where the Winter Olympics are scheduled to begin on February 4.
The “zero-covid” strategy: China is one of the only places in the world that still aims to eliminate covid-19 within its borders.
However, the frustrations of locked-in residents highlight the growing challenge posed by its “Zero-covid” policy, which relies on a book of massive tests, extended quarantines and sudden shutdowns to end any resurgence of the virus. .
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