Everyone in a district of 1. 8 million people in China’s southern metropolis of Guangzhou was ordered to stay home today to undergo virus testing and a major city in the southwest closed schools as another rise in infections was reported.
The National Health Commission reported that a total of 11,773 infections were discovered across the country in the previous 24 hours, including 10,351 in people who had no symptoms.
Although China’s numbers are small, the recent rise poses a threat to the “zero-Covid” strategy, which aims to isolate every infected person.
The quarantine for travelers arriving in China was shortened to five days from seven as part of changes in anti-virus controls announced today to reduce their cost and disruption.
However, the ruling Communist Party vowed to maintain its “zero Covid” policy even as other nations loosened travel and other restrictions and attempted to adopt a long-term coping mechanism for the virus.
According to the NHC, a total of 3775 infections were discovered in the 13 million-person city of Guangzhou, including 2996 in people who had no symptoms. That was an increase from yesterday’s total of 3030, including 2461 people without symptoms.
The district government of Haizhu in Guangzhou issued a directive ordering residents to stay inside on Saturday while testing was being done. Each family was given permission to send one person shopping for food.
Due to an increase in cases, Guangzhou, which is 120 kilometres north of Hong Kong, has shut down many of its schools, as well as its bus and subway systems.
Flights from Guangzhou to the Chinese capital, Beijing, and other major cities have been cancelled.
Anyone entering a supermarket, an office building, or another public building must show negative results from a virus test that may be taken as frequently as once per day. Because of this, authorities can detect infections in people who are asymptomatic.
The 840,000-person Beibei district of the industrial city of Chongqing in the southwest closed its schools.
In its Yubei district, residents were prohibited from leaving a number of apartment compounds, though the city made no mention of how many were impacted.
Earlier this year, in response to complaints that it was too expensive, the ruling party changed its strategy from suspending access to cities to isolating infected buildings or neighborhoods. However, during outbreaks, such restrictions may still apply to regions with millions of residents.
In some places, public resentment and complaints that residents occasionally go without food or medicine have erupted into demonstrations and altercations with local authorities.
In eight districts across Zhengzhou’s central city, home to a combined 6. 6 million people, mass testing was also being conducted today.
Access to an industrial zone of Zhengzhou that is home to the world’s biggest iPhone factory was suspended last week following outbreaks. iTunes Inc.
It issued a delivery delay warning for the new iPhone 14 model.
Despite efforts to lessen the impact on the second-largest economy in the world, forecasters claim that business and consumer activity is weakening. Growth rebounded from the first half’s 2. 2% to 3. 9% over a year earlier in the three months ending in September.
Economists have cut their forecast of China’s annual economic growth to as low as 3%, which would be among the lowest in decades.
The virus, which was first discovered in late 2019 in the central city of Wuhan, has been resisted by President Xi Jinping’s administration, which has also refused to import foreign vaccines and refused requests to provide more information about the virus’s origin.
“Zero Covid” may remain in effect for up to another year, according to economists and public health authorities. They claim that before the ruling party can think about removing the restrictions that keep the majority of foreign visitors out of China, millions of elderly people must be immunized.
China tightens restrictions in response to an increase in virus cases,
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