China returns to lockdowns as COVID-19 cases surge, cities Shenzhen and Changchun comes to a halt

China has once again resorted to lockdowns as the country experiences the most significant surge in COVID-19 cases since the early days of the pandemic, reports said.

According to The Age, the Chinese authorities have shut down the city of Changchun in Jilin province, a city of nine million residents. At the same time, the authorities have ordered the construction of makeshift hospitals in the city, and also in the eastern port city of Qingdao.

The southern Chinese tech hub Shenzhen was also put under lockdown, the local government announced, reported AFP. This came after the city reported 66 new coronavirus cases. The city which is home to around 17 million citizens and tech giants including Huawei and Tencent. The local administration has told its residents to stay home to control the spread of the new cases.

Meanwhile, an outbreak of the omicron variant in Shanghai saw schools shuttered again, while officials are said to be looking at diverting all international flights away from the financial centre to ease pressure on quarantine hotels.

The situation is not at ease even in the autonomous region of Hong Kong. About 300,000 COVID-19 patients and their close contacts in Hong Kong are now under home quarantine, according to the city's Chief Executive Carrie Lam. The city chief also highlighted that it would be challenging for the authorities to keep up if the cases keep rising at the current rate.

According to China's National Health Commission, China on Saturday reported 1,807 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases.

Domestic infections topped 1,000 on Friday for the first time since the peak of the original Wuhan outbreak, a tally that has ballooned from just over 300 cases a day in less than a week.

Of the total infections, 1,412 were reported in the North-eastern province of Jilin.

(With ANI inputs)

Published on: Sunday, March 13, 2022, 05:38 PM IST