Millions locked down as China wrestles worst virus outbreak in two years

China has placed millions of people under lockdown to stem a surge in coronavirus infections, following a two-fold rise in the number of cases nationwide to nearly 3,400.

According to Press TV, the southern tech hub of Shenzhen was put under a citywide lockdown on Sunday after it reported 66 new coronavirus cases and sealed off the central business district. The country struggles with its gravest outbreak in two years.

The city of around 17 million told its residents to stay home to eradicate an Omicron flare-up linked to neighboring COVID-hit Hong Kong, following an earlier ban on non-essential venues in recent days.

The lockdown and a suspension of public transport will last until March 20, a city government notice said, adding that it would launch three rounds of mass testing. “If prevention and control is not strengthened in a timely and decisive manner, it could easily become large-scale community transmission,” Shenzhen health official Lin Hancheng said at a press briefing.

The nationwide surge has prompted authorities to close schools in Shanghai and lock down multiple northeastern cities. Some 18 provinces battle clusters of the Omicron and Delta variants.

The city of Jilin — center of the outbreak in the northeast — was partially locked down Saturday, while residents of Yanji, an urban area of ​​nearly 700,000, bordering North Korea, were confined to their homes Sunday.

Zhang Yan, an official with the Jilin Provincial Health Commission, said local authorities’ virus response so far had been lacking. “The emergency response mechanism in some areas is not robust enough, there is insufficient understanding of the characteristics of the Omicron variant … and judgment has been inaccurate,” he said at a press briefing.

The neighboring city of Changchun – an industrial base of nine million people – was locked down Friday, while at least three other small cities have been locked down since March 1.

China, where the virus was first detected in late 2019, has maintained a strict ‘zero-Covid’ policy enforced with swift lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing when clusters have emerged. But the latest flare-up, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant and a spike in asymptomatic cases, is challenging that approach.

Chinese officials urge softer and more targeted measures to contain the virus, while economists warn that tough clampdowns are hurting the economy.