China has placed 65 million people under highly restrictive lockdown measures and is discouraging domestic travel during the upcoming national holidays, as part of its “zero cases” strategy for covid-19.
Most of the 21 million people in the southwestern city of Chengdu are banned from leaving their homes, while in the eastern port city of Tianjin, classes have moved online after 14 new cases were diagnosed, most without symptom.
THE China recorded a total of 1,552 new cases in the last 24 hoursreported the National Health Commission. The Asian country is the most populous in the world, with 1.4 billion inhabitants.
The highly contagious Omicron variant is forcing the Chinese authorities to impose extreme confinement measures, to safeguard the “zero cases” strategy, assumed as a political triumph by the Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping.
The strategy calls for the isolation of all positive cases, including asymptomatic ones, and their direct contacts, carrying out massive tests and blocking entire districts and cities.
These measures have huge economic and social costs, but the Chinese Communist Party says they are necessary to stop the wider spread of the virus, first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
The fear of being trapped in a lockdown or sent to a quarantine center for having had close contact with a positive case, severely restricts social and professional life.
Chickens on the roof, meat in the back seat and empty shelves: China decrees confinement in Chengdu and generates panic among citizens
In Chengdu, the start of the new school term has been postponed and most residents are in lockdown. In total, 33 cities are on lockdown, according to state media. Several cities have asked residents not to travel during the upcoming official holidays in China.
Beijing announced that, during the holidays, the authorities will be “stricter” in handling and controlling the pandemic, according to the official Global Times newspaper.
Since the outbreak began, China has put tens of millions of people under unrelenting lockdowns, sometimes restricting access to food, health care and basic necessities.
The nearly two-month lockdown of Shanghai, China’s financial “capital” and main industrial hub, has rattled the country’s economy and sparked an exodus of foreign residents.
Source: Observadora
