Another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic looms large as China heads into yet another lockdown. Multiple parts of the capital city of Shanghai, and the country’s tech hub, Shenzhen, are under complete lockdown.
Chinese press outlets reported that the country is on the brink of the biggest COIVD-19 crisis since Wuhan. 3,400 COVID-19 cases were reported in the country on Sunday, which was the highest daily figure in two years.
Despite having controlled the pandemic since its appearance in 2020 and greatly curbing its spread by the end of 2021, the arrival of the highly infectious Omicron variant meant that the country’s health system would collapse.
According to Reuters, 9000 cases have already been recorded in 2022 compared to the 8,378 cases recorded in all of 2021.
Changchun, an industrial base of nine million people, was locked down on Friday. Jilin and Yanjim, cities in the northeast province of Yunnan, imposed a lockdown on Sunday.
Cities of Dalian, Nanjing, and Tianjin which border the capital have also issued full-lockdown orders.
The country for the first time allowed the public to use COVID-19 antigen self-test kits, as well as announcing the Health Commission’s plan of scaling up testing.
China’s “Zero COVID” policy has come under question after the surge in cases in many cities nationwide.
