These incidents – particularly in Shanghai, long seen as China’s most modern and cosmopolitan city – have put people elsewhere on high alert. Also in March, some Changchun residents reported struggling to receive medical care for non-Covid diseases such as cancer or kidney conditions, with hospitals turning away patients. In March, students at a locked-down university in Jilin City pleaded for help, saying they had been left to fend for themselves without basic supplies. Similar stories have been reported from other parts of the country, too. These stories and many more have gone viral on Chinese social media, sparking rare outcry online. Residents line up for Covid-19 testing during a lockdown in Shanghai on April 27. Last week, workers reportedly broke down the door of a 92-year-old woman’s home in the early hours of the morning to force her into quarantine. In early April, a health worker beat a pet corgi to death after its owner tested positive for Covid, the killing captured on camera. In March, an off-duty nurse in Shanghai died after being turned away from an emergency ward at her own hospital that was closed for disinfection. Many residents have complained of food shortages, lack of medical access, poor conditions at makeshift quarantine camps and heavy-handed measures such as authorities separating infected children from their parents. Much of the Shanghai lockdown has been characterized by chaos and dysfunction – prompting alarm in other cities that fear they could be next. They span 14 provinces, from far-flung northeastern Heilongjiang province to southern Guangxi and the mountainous western Qinghai province. Several major hospitals also announced they were closing, and a growing number of entertainment venues including cinemas have also been ordered to close.įull 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. The capital closed schools in many of its most populous districts on Thursday. 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. Locked-down residents line up in the rain for Covid tests in Beijing on April 27. 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 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. Northeastern Jilin province was hit hard during the early stages of the outbreak.
Where are the lockdowns and restrictions?Ĭases 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. Here’s what you need to know about the Covid situation in China.
CHINA LOCKDOWN FULL
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.Īuthorities 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. 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. Those actions have sparked fears of a wider lockdown similar to Shanghai’s. 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. 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 neighborhoods. Shanghai is at the center of the latest outbreak, reporting upwards of 15,000 new cases a day. 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.
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