180M people impacted by China COVID-19 lockdowns
China has introduced lockdown measures in its two biggest cities, Beijing and Shanghai -- the twin engines that power much of the nation's economy -- in an uncompromising bid to stamp out COVID-19 outbreaks.To get more news about china coronavirus update, you can visit shine news official website.
Shanghai is at the centre of the latest outbreak, reporting upwards of 15,000 new cases a day. Authorities have responded with a city-wide lockdown that has lasted weeks, confining nearly all 25 million residents of the once-bustling financial hub to their homes or neighbourhoods.
Meanwhile, Beijing officials have launched mass testing exercises, shut schools and imposed targeted lockdowns on some residential buildings in a bid to rein in infections. Those actions have sparked fears of a wider lockdown similar to Shanghai's.
Throughout the pandemic, China has stuck to a strict zero-COVID strategy that uses lockdowns, mass testing, quarantines, and border closures to contain the virus. But the arrival of the highly infectious Omicron variant has thrown the sustainability of that strategy into question, with the virus spreading to different cities and provinces faster than the government can contain it.Authorities are now enforcing full or partial lockdowns in at least 27 cities across the country, with these restrictions affecting up to 180 million people, according to CNN's calculations.
WHERE ARE THE LOCKDOWNS AND RESTRICTIONS?
Cases in China began rising in March, soon spiraling into the worst flare-up the country has seen since the initial outbreak in Wuhan in early 2020.
Northeastern Jilin province was hit hard during the early stages of the outbreak. Authorities put the provincial capital Changchun, an industrial hub, under strict city-wide lockdown on March 11, with nearby Jilin City following suit on March 21.
On Thursday, authorities in Changchun and Jilin City, which have a combined population of more than 13.5 million residents, said they would soon begin to gradually ease lockdowns -- though it remains unclear what that process will look like, or under what conditions people will be permitted to leave their homes.
Authorities also locked down several other cities, including the major economic centre of Shenzhen, in March -- though some of these measures have since been lifted.Shanghai, which has recorded more than half a million cases since March 1, introduced a staggered lockdown in late March. This had expanded into a full citywide lockdown by the end of the month.
Some neighbourhoods can start to ease lockdown measures if they have reported no cases in the past two weeks, Shanghai authorities said on Wednesday -- but it's a tenuous freedom, with the threat of reimposed lockdown if even one local case is detected.
In Beijing, a mass testing campaign has covered nearly 20 million residents -- about 90% of the city's population. Another round of citywide testing is underway from April 27 to 30.
Targeted lockdowns in Beijing's Chaoyang district this week barred residents in at least 46 buildings from leaving their apartments or compounds, while more than 5,300 people were placed under lockdown in Fangshan district.
The capital closed schools in many of its most populous districts on Thursday. Several major hospitals also announced they were closing, and a growing number of entertainment venues including cinemas have also been ordered to close.
Full or district-wide lockdowns are in effect in more than two dozen cities including Hangzhou, home to 12.2 million people; Suzhou, home to 12.7 million people; and Harbin, home to 9.5 million people. They span 14 provinces, from far-flung northeastern Heilongjiang province to southern Guangxi and the mountainous western Qinghai province.