People line up to get tested for the coronavirus outside a hospital in Shanghai on Friday.
AP
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People line up to get tested for the coronavirus outside a hospital in Shanghai on Friday.
AP
BEIJING – China on Friday ordered a lockdown of 9 million residents of the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in the region due to a highly contagious omicron variant. orchid.
Residents are asked to stay home, with one family member allowed to venture out to buy food and other essentials every two days. All residents have to undergo three rounds of mass checks, while non-essential businesses have been closed and transport links suspended.
The latest lockdowns, including Yucheng with 500,000 people in the eastern province of Shandong, show that China is following a draconian approach to the pandemic that it has taken for most of the past two years. , despite some earlier indications that the administration will roll out more targeted measures.
China reported another 397 cases of local transmission nationwide on Friday, 98 of them in Jilin province, which surrounds Changchun, a hub of the country’s auto industry. Across the province, the number of cases has exceeded 1,100 since the latest outbreak occurred late last week.
Only two cases were reported in Changchun itself on Friday, bringing the total to 78 in recent days. Authorities have repeatedly pledged to shut down any community where one or more cases are found under China’s “zero tolerance” approach to the pandemic.
Another 93 cases are confirmed in the nearby city of Jilin with the same name as the surrounding province. Authorities ordered a partial lockdown in the city and severed tourist links with other cities.
Officials from Jilin University of Agricultural Science and Technology were fired after a spate of infections were reported on campus and students complained on social media that those with results testing positive is being held in the school library and other buildings in poor conditions.
The school has registered 74 confirmed cases and sent more than 6,000 people to quarantine, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Aerial images show students in hazmat suits lining up in the dark and cold waiting to be delivered.
