Chinese authorities, on the sly, partially confined a large new city near Beijing this week after a few cases of COVID-19, a decision taken a few days before the start of the Winter Olympics.
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Some 1.2 million residents of Xiong’an New Area, about 100 kilometers south of the capital, are banned from entering or leaving their residential areas, a health official told AFP on Friday. .
Flagship project of President Xi Jinping, the Xiong’an economic zone, still being extended, aims to be a model of urban development and a “green city”. It also aims to relieve Beijing of certain administrative functions.
Lockdowns are publicly announced in China. But in this specific case, the restrictions seem to have been introduced on the sly.
“We expect this (lockdown) to last about a week,” the health official of Xiong County, one of three that make up the Xiong’an New Area, told AFP.
The lockdown began on Tuesday, he added. On the same day, authorities in another county in the area reported five new positive coronavirus cases.
China has virtually eradicated COVID from its soil since the spring of 2020, with the exception of a few sporadic outbreaks, notably in recent weeks in Beijing and the nearby major port city of Tianjin.
As the Winter Olympics approach, the health authorities are mobilized to prevent any resumption of the epidemic, particularly in and around the capital.
China, where the coronavirus was first detected at the end of 2019, is adopting a so-called “zero COVID” strategy which consists of doing everything to prevent the occurrence of new cases and to ensure normal activity in the country.
Targeted confinements, mandatory quarantines on arrival in the territory and vast screening campaigns have made it possible to have very low contamination figures, disproportionate to those of many countries in the world.
China reported only 39 new Covid patients on Friday.
The Winter Olympics will be held in a health bubble which should make it possible to avoid any contact between the participants and the general population.