China announced on Sunday a tightening of containment measures in the northeast of the country after an outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, as the metropolis of Shenzhen (south) prepares to lift its own.
The Asian country reported 4,053 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday. Two-thirds were identified in Jilin, a province bordering North Korea and Russia.
To stem the spread of the virus, the eponymous city of Jilin will impose strict confinement on its approximately 4.5 million inhabitants, the town hall announced.
From Monday midnight (Sunday 4:00 p.m. GMT) and for a period of three days, the inhabitants of the metropolis will not be able to leave their homes or residences.
China, where the coronavirus was first detected at the end of 2019, had managed to largely stem the epidemic by resorting to strict containment measures from the start of 2020, but the Omicron strain has given rise in recent months to many homes across the country.
Last Sunday, the technological metropolis of Shenzhen, located at the gates of Hong Kong, thus confined its 17.5 million inhabitants.
The southern city, which brings together thousands of factories of big names in technology, has however partially lifted certain restrictions since Friday.
Public transport will be able to fully resume from Monday, as well as administrations and part of economic activity, local health authorities announced on Sunday.
Non-essential businesses will however remain closed and the Futian business district will remain under strict anti-COVID measures.
Pressure on the economy
The lifting of part of the restrictions in Shenzhen nevertheless illustrates the authorities’ concern for economic activity, after two years of a zero COVID-19 strategy. It consists of doing everything (confinements, quarantines, contact tracing, border screening) to prevent the appearance of new cases.
For its part, the metropolis of Changchun (northeast), placed in confinement at the beginning of the month, announced on Saturday evening that it would tighten its measures for three days.
From now on, only medical personnel and people linked to the epidemic are allowed to go out.
Since the start of the containment on March 11, the 9 million inhabitants of Changchun could still go out once every two days to buy food.
The measures come as China recorded its first two deaths from COVID-19 in more than a year on Saturday.
Tens of millions of people are currently in lockdown across the country and authorities are scrambling to free up hospital beds, fearing the outbreak could put the healthcare system under great strain.
The city of Tangshan (north), the base of the steel industry in China, also banned traffic for 24 hours on Sunday, in order to stem the spread of the virus and to screen its 7.7 million inhabitants.