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China’s Covid-19 cases soar, 15,000 cases reported since March 1
Millions across the country face fresh restrictions on movement, including the entire Jilin province that was locked down on Monday and the technology hub of Shenzhen.
China on Tuesday recorded 5,280 fresh Covid-19 cases including 3,507 symptomatic ones, more than double the previous day’s tally, with the country-wide outbreak spreading fast in the northeast region.
More than 15,000 new cases have been reported on the mainland since March 1, affecting 28 provinces and municipalities, the national health commission (NHC) said on Tuesday.
Mi Feng, NHC spokesperson said the main variant spreading in many parts of China is the “stealth Omicron”, which spreads faster than other variants.
Millions across the country face fresh restrictions on movement, including the entire Jilin province that was locked down on Monday and the technology hub of Shenzhen.
Nearly a dozen cities and counties across China have been locked down to control the new outbreak, the worst since the virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late, 2019.
Manufacturing in several companies including at MNCs like Toyota, Volkswagen and Apple supplier Foxconn have been impacted, raising concerns that global supply chains could be disrupted.
Dozens of domestic flights at airports in Beijing and Shanghai were cancelled on Tuesday morning; large scale mass tests have been ordered in both cities. “Of the new local infections, 3,076 were reported in Jilin, 106 in Shandong, 53 in Shaanxi, 51 in Tianjin, 48 in Guangdong, 33 in Fujian, 31 in Zhejiang, 24 in Liaoning, 20 in Jiangsu, 13 in Hebei, and 10 in Chongqing,” the official news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday, quoting the daily NHC report. The rest of the cases were reported in Shanghai, Heilongjiang, Gansu, Beijing, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Anhui and Henan.
Over 8,201 patients have been hospitalised in Jilin province with more than 95% with mild cases or silent carriers, the NHC said. More than 1,000 medical workers have been flown in from other provinces along with pandemic response supplies to Jilin, and the province has mobilised 7,000 military reservists to help with the response, local media reports said.
Despite questions being raised about China’s tough “dynamic clearance” approach to outbreaks, especially ones triggered by the Omicron variety, the Chinese government is likely to stick to the policy for now. “The importance of sticking to the current prevention and control measures is apparent. For a country as populous as China, hasty and premature relaxation of dynamic zero-Covid policy risks eroding the hard-won prevention and control achievements gained in the earlier stage, and may also result in severe consequences in the near future,” the official news agency, Xinhua said in an opinion piece on Tuesday.
“Compared with the huge population in China, the numbers of infections, severe cases and deaths related to novel coronavirus pneumonia are very small, and the imported epidemic situation can be curbed quickly, demonstrating that the prevention and control measures are effective and efficient,” the opinion piece added.
