China Imposes Lockdown In Industrial Centre With 9 Million Residents Amid Biggest COVID Surge In 2 Years

China officially imposed a lockdown on Friday (March 11) on 9 million residents in the northeastern industrial centre of Changchun amid a fresh COVID outbreak. According to the orders issued, the residents cannot leave their homes for specified reasons and have to undergo three rounds of mass testing. Meanwhile, the city authorities have also decided to close all non-essential businesses and suspended transport ties for the time being.

The move came on the very day when the national authorities clocked in over 1,000 fresh COVID cases in more than a dozen of cities, the biggest single-day spike in almost two years. Out of these, 98 cases were reported in the Jilin province that surrounds Changchun. Meanwhile, Changchun reported just two cases Friday, as per TimesNow reports.

Another COVID Outbreak In China!

The Chinese authorities have continually pledged to inflict lockdown in any city or community where one or more novel and highly contagious virus cases are reported. These earlier mentioned measures have been established under China's "zero tolerance" approach to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have already imposed a partial COVID lockdown in Jilin city, which shares the identical name as the surrounding province. Travel links from there with other neighbouring cities have been cut off as a precautionary measure after 93 new cases were reported in Jilin on Friday.

Coronavirus & China

The rapidly-spreading Omicron COVID variant has also forced schools in the financial hub of Shanghai to close down.

The over 1,000 new coronavirus cases are the highest since the first outbreak of the novel virus in China in early 2020. Out of these, 703 were domestically transmitted asymptomatic infections, while 397 were local symptomatic cases.

Also Read: WHO Warns About New Omicron+Delta Recombinant Virus After Study Finds First Solid Evidence